






1?\ 







^^V ;lii& ^ v ' 



SPIRIT 

MANIFESTATIONS 

EXAMINED AND EXPLAINED. 

JUDGE EDMONDS REFUTED; 



AN EXPOSITION OF THE 

littolttttlarjj $0fotr« raft $iwiintis 

OF THE HUMAN MIND. 

BY JOHN BOVEE ; DODS, 

AUTHOR OF « PHILOSOPHY OP ELECTBICAL PSYCHOLOGY," " IMMORTALITY TRIUMPHANT," 
ETC., ETC. 




NEW YORK : 
DE WITT & DAVENPORT, PUBLISHERS, 

160 & 162 NASSAU STREET. 



y 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

DE WITT & DAVENPORT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York. 



W. H. Tinson, Stereotypy. 

24 Beeknvan street, N. Y. 



Holman, Gray & Co., Printers. 
New- York. 



TO 

HON. WILLIAM LUSK CRANDAL, 

A 

PHILOSOPHIC WRITER 
ON THS 

EDUCATION OF MAN, 

AND THE 

PEIEND OF CHILDHOOD 



ffcis ®0rk 



16 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY 

HIS SINCERE AND DEVOTED FRIEND, 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The substance of the following Lectures, on 
the rationale of the so-called spirit-manifesta- 
tions, was delivered at the City Hall in 
Auburn, N. Y., in April, 1851. In June, 
1852, 1 wrote them out with an intention, after 
delivering them a few times, to hand them 
over for publication. But this has been 
neglected, and I have continued to deliver 
them occasionally for eighteen months past, 
when and where invited by my friends to 
do so. 

I make the above explanation, because it 
will be perceived by the reader, that in one 
of my Lectures I make a statement, that I 
knew of no one who had taken the middle 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

ground between believers and skeptics in the 
spirit-manifestations, and who was a rational 
believer — that is, a believer on natural princi- 
ples. And as I use considerable language of 
this character, it might be considered incorrect, 
when Mr. Rogers has published a work that 
occupies the middle ground between believers 
and skeptics. But as my Lectures were written 
and delivered before his book appeared, so 
this matter will be understood by all. I have 
no faith whatever in the odic force of Reich- 
enbach, which Mr. Rogers seems to have 
adopted to explain the phenomena of the spirit- 
manifestations. For this the reader will find 
my reasons stated in the Appendix to these 
Lectures. 

I will now say, that I had abandoned the 
idea of publishing my views in connection with 
the spirit-manifestations, and had coi eluded 
to prepare a work devoted exclusively to the 
exposition of the instincts of man as connected 
with the involuntary potvers of his mind, which, 
as a branch of mental philosophy, has been 
entirely overlooked. But as Judge Edmonds, 
of this city, has just published a work in 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

defense of the spirit-manifestations, and given 
the subject the weight and sanction of his 
judicial name, and even resigned his seat in 
consequence, as Judge of the Supreme Court, 
and as the doctrine is gradually assuming a 
more imposing attitude before the public, so I 
feel in duty bound to listen to the solicitations 
of my friends, and publish this humble effort 
of mine in the hope that it may do good. 
And though sensible that errors may be de- 
tected and pointed out, yet I am fully satisfied 
that the thought — the leading idea involved 
in the work — is in accordance with nature and 
truth, and this is all that I feel myself bound 
to defend against any attack that may be 

made. 

J. B. DODS. 



CONTENTS. 

Pagb 

DEDICATION 3 

INTRODUCTION 5 

LECTURE I. 

PUBLIC OPINION OF SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS AND 
MEDIUMS STATED AND CONSIDERED 13-26 

The author urged to explain the spirit-manifestations — They 
are not produced by the agency of departed spirits, are not 
a humbug, but the effect of a natural cause — Three classes 
of minds — the credulous, the skeptical, and those who 
calmly investigate — Origin of rappings in the family of Mr. 
Fox, March, 1848 — Intelligence discovered ; the a-b-c pro- 
cess, rapping and writing mediums ; they are sincerely hon- 
est — The mysterious nature of the subject — The public 
divided into believers and skeptics ; both are in error ; the 
manifestations may be true if not caused by spirits — The 
character of its mediums and advocates : their respectability, 
their number ; rapidity with which the doctrine is spread- 
ing — Periodicals in its defense — It portends a new revelation. 

LECTURE II. 

INVOLUNTARY RAPPING: HOW PRODUCED, AND THE 

FORCE OF HABIT ARGUED 27-40 

Two points to be considered, viz. : Motion and intelligence 
connected with it — Nervous impressibility through passivity, 
and the result — The state of the two brains ; the involuntary 
nerves electrically charged more than the voluntary is the 
cause of electro-magnetic sounds being given off — Case of 
the Seeress of Prevorst, and Miss Slaughter, of Virginia — 
Case of a lady reported in Professor Silliman's Journal who 
gave off electric sounds — Mediums produce sounds in a sim- 
ilar manner — Sound is propagated and conducted — The force 
of habit ; the stuttering boy ; the performer on the piano ; he 
plays by instinct. 

LECTURE III. 

INVOLUNTARY MOTION IN GENERAL CONSIDERED. 41-63 
Involuntary motion among the Greeks, Romans, Druids, and 
6avage tribes — The Pythian priestess and spinning dervishes 
— Dr. Babbington's account — The cat-mewing nuns ; the 
biting nuns — Barclay's account of Quaker tremblings and 
shakings ; a Quaker lady in Salem, Mass. — Seeress of Pre- 
vorst — Dr. Stone on the progress of fanaticism — The devil- 



X CONTENTS. 

Pagb 
chase, marble-playing, and stick-riding — The jerks among 
converts — The spirit-rapping mania is from the same origin 
as all other involuntary motions. 

LECTURE IV. 

THE INSTINCTS OF MAN AND THE INVOLUNTARY 
POWERS OF HIS MIND CONSIDERED, AND THE 
INTELLIGENCE CONNECTED WITH SPIRIT-MANI- 
FESTATIONS EXPLAINED 54-71 

Every part of the human system is double ; the brain is 
double, and the mind that pervades is double ; the cerebrum, 
or front brain, considered; the cerebellum, or back brain, 
considered — The office of each as the organ of the mind ; the 
front brain contains the voluntary powers of the mind, such 
as thought and reason — The back brain contains the invol- 
untary powers of the mind, such as instinct and intuition 
— The senses involuntary — Instinct itself considered in 
brutes and in men — Pope on instinct ; creatures have both 
reason and instinct ; man has both — Presentiments — All the 
intelligence in spirit-manifestations is from the involuntary 
power of instinct — The medium has no will in writing — 
Clay — Webster ; their communications— Writing in Hebrew, 
Greek, German, French, and Indian languages. 

LECTURE V. 

THE INSTINCTS OF MAN; HIS INVOLUNTARY POW- 
ERS OF MIND AND THE INTELLIGENCE CONNECTED 
WITH THE SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS CONTINUED. 72-96 
Mesmerism, psychology, and catalepsy rouse instinct into 
action ; in one of these states mediums must be — Seeress of 
Prevorst — What constitutes a good medium ; false mediums 
— Psychological impressions and experiment stated — Fits — 
The whole subject of the spirit-manifestations brought to 
the test — Proof that it is psychology or mesmerism under 
the energy of which the whole is done — Objections stated 
and met in every form — Contradictions pointed out — How 
tables are tipped, moved, and raised — Mediums appeal to 

, Scripture — The angel announcing the birth of Christ to 
shepherds ; the splendor of the scene — The transfiguration — 
The angel in Gethsemane — The crucifixion and resurrection. 

LECTURE VI. 

THE INSTINCTS OF MAN— HIS INVOLUNTARY POW- 
ERS OF MIND, AND THE INTELLIGENCE CONNECTED 
WITH THE SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS, CONCLUDED 97-113 
Man is capable of double consciousness ; if not, where do 
spirits get the power to communicato— Positive proof that 



CONTENTS. XI 

Pagb 
man has instinct and intuition in the back brain — Mesmer- 
ism proves it — The involuntary power never reasons, but 
knows ; through this, God has inspired men — From the 
instincts of the lower animals man has obtained his first idea 
of the arts and improvements — History testifies it, and poets 
sing it — By instinct the medium writes; by it the somnam- 
bulist walks safely where he could not by reason when awake 
— Mesmerism and psychology useful in their place; not 
needed to make a new revelation of moral truth — Mr. Davis 
and the Bible — Swedeaborg and the Bible. 

LECTURE VII. 

THE BIBLE CAN NOT BE SUPERSEDED BY A NEW 
REVELATION OF MORAL TRUTH— THE MAGNAN- 
IMITY OF CHRIST 114-129 

Improvements may be made in the arts and sciences, but 
not in moral truth— The moral precepts of Christ — Mr. 
Davis' description of other planets and their inhabitants is 
no revelation of moral truth — The globe contains more of 
natural science than man can learn; the Bible more of moral 
truth than man has yet practiced — Christ's revelation tran- 
scends all others — Christ came from heaven and knew man's 
moral wants — His power; his greatness ; his intelligence ; his 
moral grandeur — His reign and its consummation — He is the 
First and the Last. 

LECTURE VIII. 

NOTICE OF JUDGE EDMONDS' BOOK, AND HIS ARGU- 
MENT CONSIDERED 127-144 

Judge Edmonds, Dr. Dexter, Governor Tallmadge, authors 
of the work called " Spiritualism," pages 505 — The candor of 
the writers — Swedenborg's communications considered ; also 
Bacon's — The character ascribed to Christ — Communications 
from Clay, Webster, and Calhoun — Dr. Adin Ballou— The 
beauty of Charity — Andrew Jackson Davis' book — Spirit- 
intercourse the Judge thinks will uproot infidelity, and unite 
all denominations in one harmony — Mrs. Fish ; the first me- 
dium, her candor — Effects of the gospel in 1800 years — All 
magnanimous objects move slowly — The volumes of nature 
and revelation contrasted ; the human race are the students 
of nature ; their progress slow ; the same in revelation — 
All men differ in nature, and why not in revelation ? — All 
are progressing and approximating a common goal of senti- 
ment — To accomplish this union may require thousands of 
years — The agent will not be spiritual intercourse by which 
it will be effected, but the power of the press — The spirit- 
manifestations the Judge makes older than the Christian era, 
and what have they done compared with the gospel ? Nothing. 



XU CONTENTS. 

Pagb 

LECTURE IX. 

CONSIDERATION OF JUDGE EDMONDS' ARGUMENT 

CONTINUED 145-172 

Physical manifestations considered ; the bell is taken from 
M.'s hand and rung ; comb taken from the hair; shawl from 
the shoulders, and feet tripped up by the spirits — Table 
moved and bass-viol and violins placed in the Judge's hand 
and hung about his neck and played upon, and the Judge 
struck with the fiddle-bow — Ladies tied together with a 
handkerchief — Spirits requesting lights to be put out — 
Legerdemain ; tricks with cards ; bell-ringing examined — 
Were the rooms well lighted? — The Judge is a writing-me- 
dium and sees visions — He is in the electro-psychological 
state, and sees and hears all these things — Clairvoyants 
told the secrets of his bosom — The chair jerked from under 
the Judge — All these things should be performed before an 
audience of four or five hundred persons to be proved true. 

LECTURE X. 

THE EXISTENCE OF REICHENBACH'S ODIC-FORCE 
EXAMINED - 173-215 

Electricity substituted for odic-force — Spirits may communi- 
cate with mortals — Revelation finished — Swedenborg consist- 
ent — Davis against the Bible — Professor Grimes — Judge 
Edmonds' queries with spirits as to understanding how they 
communicate with men — It is by the odic-force of Von Reich- 
enbach — Sympathy of magnetizer and subject as to feeling, 
tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing — Experiments at 
Clinton Hall — It is all by sympathy — Magnetizer is unnec- 
essary — Let the subject go into the state by a mental abstrac- 
tion with that substance in his hand he desires to investigate 
and write it all down while in the state — He should be igno- 
rant of human opinions — Swedenborg went into the state 
right — Somnambulists also, and so do mediums — The various 
modes by which to get into communication with the subject. 
Of this Reichenbach is ignorant — If the odic-force be real, 
why have not all clairvoyants seen it ? — Since Reichenbach's 
book has been read, all clairvoyants have seen it, and lastly 
Judge Edmonds has seen it. 

APPENDIX. 

The appendix concluding with a letter to Professor Bush 
should be carefully read, as it contains valuable matter re- 
cording many wonderful cases of intelligence, prophesy, and 
without the aid of spirit-communications 216-252 



SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS. 



LECTURE I 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

For three years past I have been urged by various 
literary gentlemen among my friends and acquaintance 
to investigate the mysterious and interesting subject 
of the spirit-rappings and the spirit-writings, and the 
various startling manifestations hovering around it, 
and to communicate the result of my investigations to 
the world. They desired to have the cause ascertain- 
ed and the subject understood, at least in its general 
features. 

I have not the vanity to believe that this call ha8 
been made upon me on account of any superior abilities 
I possess, but because my friends knew that I had, for 
the last twenty years, made the human mind and body, 
and the connecting link between the two, and the phil- 
osophy of their various mental and physical impressions 
and operations, my particular study. On this account, 



14 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

no doubt, they have urged me to investigate the subject 
of the spirit-manifestations that has so long agitated 
the public mind. 

This duty I have endeavored faithfully to perform, 
by giving this subject a candid investigation, and have 
succeeded in tracing its mysterious manifestations to a 
philosophical and rational cause entirely satisfactory, 
at least to my own mind. And, ladies and gentlemen, 
it is indeed a source of gratification and pleasure to 
me, that I enjoy the opportunity of presenting myself 
before you this evening, for the purpose of a free and 
candid consideration of a subject so full of mystery to 
the public mind, that clouds and darkness may be said 
to rest upon it. As regards the result of my investiga- 
tions, I must candidly confess that the spirits of our 
departed friends in a future world have nothing to do 
with this matter. And with equal candor I must con- 
fess, that it is not a humbug, sustained by collusion, 
deception, or trick, but that it is the effect of a rational 
cause. It exists in the realms of reason, and is there- 
fore susceptible of a philosophical investigation and 
solution without appealing to the spirit-world, or dis- 
turbing the repose of its raptured inhabitants. They 
have finished their earthly career, and are susceptible 
of nothing but the impressions and feelings that apper- 
tain to a future world, while we are swift on our jour- 
ney to meet them in that country where the sun never 
sets. 



LECTURE I. 15 

The human, race are fleeing like shadows over the 
plain. They seem to move onward, but, as it were, 
in a vortex of ceaseless change, where all are swallowed 
up at last, and vanish from human sight, soon to be 
obliterated from human remembrance. And thus it 
has been from the beginning of the world down to the 
present moment. Each generation has, in its turn, 
discovered some new truth, or made some useful im- 
provement, and bequeathed it to the generations that 
should come after them, who, in their turn, have added 
it to the common stock of human knowledge. True, 
the advance of improvement in past ages has been slow, 
because the freedom of speech and the liberty of the 
press were denied. But since the foundation pillars 
of the temple of American Liberty were reared, the 
mind left free, and the press unchained, improvement 
in its onward march has been rapidly gathering force. 
In telegraphic dispatch it now rivals the lightning's 
wing, and often some great discovery in science or art, 
by its brilliancy, startles the public mind suddenly as 
a flash of lightning on the dark midnight heavens. 
When the phenomena of any new discovery appear 
dark and inscrutable to our present mode of philoso- 
phizing on subjects already made known, some are apt 
to cry out " Humbug ! collusion ! deception !" and 
some, on the other extreme, to ascribe it to some su- 
pernatural agency. 

The human mind is prone to indulge in various fan- 



16 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

tasies and wide extremes. And in an age like thi3, 
where wonders strike and adventures thicken, we must 
expect not only solid matter and sterling truth, but 
enthusiasm, reveries, and dreams. The human race 
ever have been divided into three general classes, and 
ever will continue to be, till the fabric of science, in 
the splendor of its own beauty, shall be perfected. 
The first class embraces those who endeavor to look 
at things calmly as they are ; who listen attentively to 
the teachings of nature and revelation, and build 
upon the solid foundations of truth, reason, philosophy. 
The second class embraces those who are supersti- 
tiously fond of the marvelous, who have but little fel- 
lowship with sound philosophy, and are inclined to 
believe any thing and every thing, however visionary, 
unphilosophical, and absurd. And the third class 
embraces those who believe nothing beyond what they 
were taught by their parents, friends, and instructors 
in early life, or what it may become popular and 
fashionable to believe. These last-named classes em- 
brace the two opposite extremes of our race, the cred- 
ulous and the skeptical, and are, of course, equally 
inconsistent and weak. The learned Dugald Stewart 
says, " Unlimited skepticism is equally the child of 
imbecility as implicit credulity." 

Neither of the two, however learned they may be, 
ever pretend at first to reason when something new, 
startling, and mysterious first strikes the public mind. 



LECTURE I. 17 

They both act as though they were alike strangers to 
philosophy. Those, composing the one class, run as if 
driven by instinct into the regions of mystery, where 
supernatural powers reign supreme in mystic forms, 
and ascribe every new phenomenon that transpires to 
their mysterious agency. And those of the other class 
take their position on the opposite extreme, and cry 
out — " Humbug ! collusion !" They merely ape the 
conduct of those whom they deem their superiors, 
and respond to the breathings of the popular voice. 
All their reasoning is but a repetition of their school- 
book knowledge. They labor to shine in the borrowed 
plumage of others' thoughts, and thus pass a useless 
existence on earth, as they bequeath not a single origi- 
nal idea to the world. Those of the first class are the 
solid producers of original thought, who give to the 
world the revelations of science. Between these three 
general classes there is every possible light and shade, 
gradually softening down and sliding one into the other, 
and forming the strangely mingled picture of human 
impressions and of human life. 

It is not therefore to be wondered at, that certain 
mysterious noises or rappings, said to have commenced 
in March, 1848, in the family of John D. Fox, should 
have been ascribed to superhuman agency or spirits, 
produced through certain individuals called rapping 
mediums, nor that the spasmodic movement of the 
hand producing irregularly formed letters, should have 



18 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

been ascribed to the same supernatural agency per- 
formed through certain individuals called writing me- 
diums. Hence we perceive, that there are rapping 
mediums who call for the alphabet, and in a very 
tedious manner dole out their intelligence by rapping 
for letters to spell out words ; and there are writing 
mediums who suddenly, and in a very irregular manner, 
transmit words to paper, while others do it very slowly. 
It is, however, firmly believed that, through these me- 
diums, intelligence is communicated from the spirit- 
world by departed friends to their kindred on earth. 
Nor is it to be wondered at that others, on the con- 
trary, should pronounce the whole a humbug, sustained 
by deception and trick. 

I am well aware that those who are in reality skep- 
tical, have never paused to reflect whether the mani- 
festations made through mediums might not, after all, 
be true, and in accordance with the soundest principles 
of philosophy, even if departed spirits had nothing to 
do with this matter. They have never paused to 
reflect that mediums might, after all, be in reality sin- 
cere and honest, and yet not understand how these 
communications are made by them. Ladies and gen- 
tlemen, I am perfectly satisfied that they are honest. 
And now suppose that we, skeptics and all, for a mo- 
ment admit them to be so. This being admitted, do 
you not clearly perceive that if you call them impos- 
tors, and charge them with performing all these things 



LECTURE I. 19 

by trick, deception, or collusion, that your charge has 
no other tendency than to make them more firm in the 
belief that it is all done by the agency of spirits'? 
They know and feel that they are honest; you have 
given them no rational cause for the effect produced ; 
you even deny that there is a rational cause, and hence 
they remain confirmed. You give them to under- 
stand that there can be no natural cause assigned for 
the phenomena, that they lie far beyond the realms of 
philosophy. You give them to understand that if they 
are indeed honest, and do not perform these things by 
trick, then they must be ascribed to supernatural 
agents or spirits, and this you are yourself, in such a 
case, ready to believe. 

Now as the medium knows that he is honest, do you 
not perceive that you confirm him more and still more 
in the belief of its being spirits in the same ratio that 
you oppose him by questioning his sincerity and honor ? 
Indeed, I am not acquainted with any person who is a 
decided unbeliever in these manifestations, but what at- 
tributes them to trick and deception in the mediums 
through whom they are made. He looks upon the whole 
as an arrant humbug. Nor do I know an individual 
who is a decided believer in these manifestations, but 
what attributes them to a supernatural agency exerted 
by departed spirits in a future state of being through 
mortal mediums, by which they hold converse with their 
friends on earth. I know of no one who has assumed 



20 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

the middle ground between the two, and contended for 
a philosophical cause, and who is a rational believer. 
I grant that there are thousands of individuals who 
have not made up their minds on either issue, or who 
remain perfectly indifferent, as regards either its truth 
or its falsehood. But those who have made up their 
minds form the two classes I have noticed, of believers 
and skeptics. 

The subject, then, it appears, stands arraigned at the 
bar of public opinion in the following conjoint form. 
Are these manifestations the work of immortal spirits 
in a future life, or are they a scheme of trickery car- 
ried on by wicked and designing men in this ? Now 
I contend that this conjoint question does not involve 
the true issue of the case. Even should it be perfectly 
ascertained that it is not a scheme of trickery, but that 
the medium is honest, yet this, I contend, would not 
prove it to be the work of immortal spirits. The 
medium might be honest, and yet the whole be account- 
ed for on natural and philosophical principles. The 
mysterious nature of the various manifestations, through 
rapping and writing, has led every individual to believe 
them to be the work of spirits the moment he became 
satisfied that the medium was honest, and that there 
was absolutely no trick by which it was accomplished. 
The whole subject has been considered so mysterious 
and wonderful, as to lie entirely beyond the grasp of 
the human intellect, where no philosophy could approach 



LECTURE I. 21 

it — no power successfully arraign it at the bar of human 
reason. This being the true state of the case, there 
has been no alternative presented to the public mind 
but to admit that these manifestations were indeed from 
departed spirits in a future world, or else that they 
were a humbug imposed upon the community by trick 
and deception. And as there are hundreds of medi- 
ums whose reputations are, in the estimation of their 
friends and the public, above suspicion, so the doctrine 
of the spirit-manifestations is rapidly gaining ground. 

The great mass of the Christian community have, 
as yet, remained indiiferent to these things, contenting 
themselves with the belief that as the whole is the work 
of trick, deception, or collusion, it must and will come 
to naught. And it is moreover believed that it is con- 
fined to the low and ignorant classes of society, and is 
therefore unworthy of serious consideration, as it can do 
little or no harm. But let us not deceive ourselves with 
such fallacious hopes — such groundless expectations. 
True, there are many of its believers and advocates 
among the ignorant and lower classes of society ; but 
this is no objection to its truth, because it was the same 
with regard to the disciples and followers of our Savior 
in the day of his personal ministry on earth. 

But that the believers in the spirit-communications 
through rapping and writing mediums are wholly of 
this class is far — very far from being true. Indeed, 
the case is entirely different from such a supposition as 



22 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

this. It embraces among its advocates many of the 
best intellects in our country, and those, too, who have 
drank deep at the fountains of science. It embraces 
not only some of the finest talents of the land, but 
those also whose moral and religious reputation is un- 
suspected, and spotless beyond reproach. It embraces 
among its advocates judges upon the bench, and some 
of the ablest lawyers at the bar. It embraces among 
its advocates some of the best intellects in our State 
Legislatures and in the halls of the United States Con- 
gress. It embraces among its advocates some of the 
most skillful and eminent medical men. It embraces 
among its advocates, not only thousands of professing 
Christians of all sects on earth, but many ministers of 
the gospel, and of every denomination under heaven. 
It is embraced by men who stand in the council-cham- 
ber, at the bar, and the altar. Such are its advocates ; 
and what, I ask, is the character of its mediums ? 

Its mediums, through whom these communications 
are made, purporting to be from the spirit-world, are 
by no means entirely among the ignorant and obscure, 
but pervade all ranks of society. There are rapping 
and writing mediums among the judges of our courts — 
among those who hold high stations in the community 
— among Church members male and female, and even 
among ministers of the gospel ! Through these medi- 
ums, communications, purporting to be from spirits in 
heaven, are either alphabetically rapped or else writ- 



LECTURE I. 23 

ten out, tables and stands are tipped, stones thrown, 
window-glass broken, and furniture flung about ! Still 
more : the spirit-hand of some departed child, it is be- 
lieved, is laid upon its father's or mother's forehead, 
and plays with their hair-locks by the softest and gen- 
tlest touch, and that even angels, with their starry wings 
of azure, green, and gold, fan the feverish brow ! It 
is even believed that some invisible and immortal hand 
has written a communication in the Hebrew language, 
and left it in the room of an individual while he was 
wrapped in profound slumber ! 

These and other wonders, too tedious to enumerate, 
are stated to have been performed, and yet the public 
mind, and even the ministers of the gospel, are silent, 
or carelessly slumbering on while the advocates of this 
new and startling theory are gathering tremendous and 
fearful force by continual accessions. Periodicals are 
already established, edited with no mean ability, and 
some purport to receive, not only their subject-matter, 
but the very words in which it is expressed, from im- 
mortal spirits in a future state of existence ! Yes, 
periodicals are published, meetings and conventions are 
held, and even clergymen are already in the field who 
profess to preach as they are instructed by the spirit- 
rapping and spirit-writing mediums ; and yet clergymen 
are securely slumbering on while these fearful elements 
are in motion throughout the land. 

Mediums are constantly springing up in every part 



24 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

of the United States. The transatlantic world has 
caught the mania. They are springing up in various 
parts of Europe, and particularly in Germany. Each 
one hears them in their own tongue wherein they were 
born — for it appears that the spirits know no other lan- 
guage than that of the several mediums through whom 
they communicate. There are already several thou- 
sand mediums in the United States alone, and these, 
with thousands and tens of thousands of its believers 
and advocates, are already in the field, and their num- 
bers are constantly increasing with the most astonishing 
and even alarming rapidity. Private exhibitions are 
incessantly given in social evening parties and circles in 
every city, and in almost every village throughout the 
length and breadth of the land ; and in many places 
public exhibitions are given. New York city alone 
numbers thirty-thousand believers in the spirit-mani- 
festations. 

And what, I ask, is the grand object to which these 
movements are tending, and in what will they result 1 
They certainly portend a future revelation, because they 
are calculated, if true, to supersede the teachings of 
the prophets and of Jesus Christ and his apostles, by 
a new, and, as some believe, by a higher and far more 
superior revelation than that contained in the Scriptures 
of truth. And yet the lovers of the Bible and the min- 
isters of Christ are slumbering on in security while the 
spirit-rappings and spirit- writings, as a new mode of 



LECTURE It, 25 

communication from heaven to earth, are gaining new 
and continual accessions of adherents, and gathering 
force and power. 

Having made these introductory remarks, which the 
occasion seems to require, and fairly opened the way to 
the enchanted field, I am now about to enter upon that 
part of the subject which is of most deep and thrilling 
interest to us all, because it is of vital importance to 
the repose and welfare of the community, and to the 
advancement and triumph of Christian principles. It 
is no less than the philosophy or rationale of what is 
called the spirit-rappings and spirit- writings performed 
through certain persons called mediums. It is a sub- 
ject so dark and mysterious in its nature, and so far re- 
moved from the common occurrence of events, as to se- 
verely tax and even challenge human credulity. And 
as this subject, with all its wonderful phenomena, is by 
its advocates associated with the movements and powers 
of the immortal spirits of our departed friends, and 
who believe that it wholly pertains to the scenes of eter- 
nity, so it is an object of great moment to individual 
peace and public repose, that it should be removed from 
its present dark and secret abode into the light of day. 
As it is a matter of science, and belongs to this life, it 
should be divested of its mystery, and at least so far 
explained as to force it from its assumed immortality in 
the society of departed spirits, to its proper rank in the 
society of its kindred spirits in the flesh, and like other 

2 



26 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

earthly things be subjected to the powers of philosophy 
and reason. In accomplishing this task, I shall ven- 
ture to call to my aid the phenomena associated with 
mesmerism, electro-psychology, and catalepsy, even 
though it is contended that all these have been met, 
the arguments of those who brought them forward 
have been fully considered and refuted, and hence 
that this mode of accounting for the spirit-manifesta- 
tions has been found entirely wanting. This may be 
so, but I have not had the pleasure of reading any 
arguments satisfactory to my mind of such a result, 
There are, however, various other points in the course 
of my Lectures to be considered in connection with these, 
such as the force of habit, and even the instincts of 
man as associated with the involuntary powers of hi3 
mind. I close this evening by observing, that in my 
next Lecture some of the above interesting subjects will 
be introduced and fully considered. 



LECTURE II. 27 



LECTUEE II. 

« 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In my introductory lecture I simply stated the posi- 
tion that the doctrine of the spirit- manifestations sus- 
tains in relation to the public mind, as regards both its 
credulity and skepticism. I argued the sincerity and 
honesty of its mediums, and the respectability and 
number of its advocates. I labored to bring before 
you distinctly the talents and ability embarked in its 
defense, and the rapidity and force with which it was 
spreading in the United States ; that it had even 
crossed the Atlantic, and commenced its career in the 
Eastern world. This evening I will turn your atten- 
tion to a more interesting department of my subject. 
We will now enter on an exposition of its wonderful 
phenomena. 

It will be perceived at a glance that there are but 
two grand points to be considered. The First is, 
Involuntary Motion — such as rapping, writing, 
and moving of furniture. And the Second is, the 
Intelligence connected with these manifestations. 
In this lecture I shall confine myself to Involunta- 
ry Motion, in its various features. 

The whole subject of the spirit-rappings and spirit- 



28 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

•writings, as exhibited through mediums, can be ration- 
ally accounted for by a certain condition of the nervous 
systems of such individuals. Indeed, it is a condition 
to which persons are more or less liable to be brought, 
accordipg to the degree of their nervous impressibility. 
It can be brought about by persevering passivity, and 
perfected by habit. Hence, as a general thing, medi- 
ums at first can never produce any manifestations only 
by forming a circle and sitting passively, or by assum- 
ing an entirely passive condition of their voluntary 
powers when alone. Indeed, these manifestations are 
produced by allowing the involuntary powers of the 
mind in the back brain to take the place and execute 
the office of the voluntary powers of the mind in the 
front brain, and through the nervous and muscular 
force to give motion to the medium's foot, or any part 
of the body — or to move his hand to write, and over 
which he has, at that instant, no more voluntary con- 
trol than any other person in the room. It is also, 
at the instant of his passivity, entirely cataleptic and 
destitute of feeling. But the moment he exercises his 
volition, to examine the state of his arm, that instant 
the feeling and his power to move it return, because 
the voluntary and involuntary electro-nervous forces 
between the two brains are equalized. We see, then, 
that these manifestations are occasioned by too great a 
redundancy of electricity congregated upon the invol- 
untary nerves, through passivity of mind, and thus 



LECTURE II. 29 

imparting to them extraordinary nervous force. And 
this force will be, more or less, in the same ratio that 
they are thrown out of balance with the voluntary 
nerves. In this condition, an electro-magnetic dis- 
charge from the fingers or toes of the medium may 
often produce an audible snap, or even sound, by com- 
ing in contact with surrounding substances favorable 
to the propagation of sound, and be heard at consid- 
erable distances. And, moreover, the sound will ap- 
pear to originate in the very spot where it is heard. 
Or this electro-magnetic force, by endeavoring to 
equalize itself throughout the nervous system of the 
medium, may occasion a snapping in the head, as I 
have witnessed in one case, or a striking together of 
the joints, that can be heard in an adjoining room, 
and even appear to be in the room. And while these 
phenomena are transpiring, that part of the body in 
which they occur will be entirely destitute of feeling 
at the very instant that each sound or rap is given. 
The entire passivity of the voluntary powers of the 
mind and of the voluntary nerves is the cause of un- 
duly charging the involuntary powers with too great 
an electro-nervous force, and the result is those singu- 
lar manifestations that are so confidenly attributed to 
the agency of spirits. After being thus charged, the 
voluntary powers have, doubtless, some agency in pro- 
ducing the sounds by a concentrated expectation, thus 
aiding the involuntary powers to produce an equilib- 



30 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

rium, for there is a sympathetic connection between 
the two forces. 

Hence persons who are in a perfectly cataleptic 
state, and which is, at the same time, attended with a 
brilliant clairvoyance, are sometimes capable of pro- 
ducing electro-magnetic sounds from their own invol- 
untary nervous force, so as to be heard at a consider- 
able distance. And being so near a state approaching 
the dead, and so sympathetically affected en rapport 
with the dying, that they often receive an impression, 
not only of the time the person dies, but also that the 
departed spirit, on its journey to future scenes, ap- 
pears to, and addresses them. Such was the case with 
the Seeress of Prevorst, and also With Miss Slaughter, 
of Virginia, aged only sixteen. Of the Seeress of 
Prevorst the writer says : " As I had been told by 
her parents, a year before her father's death, that at 
the period of her early magnetic state she was able to 
make herself heard by her friends as they lay in bed 
at night in the same village, but in other houses by a 
knocking — as is said of the dead, I asked her, in her 
sleep, whether she was able to do so now, and at what 
distance ? She answered, that she would sometimes 
do it — that to the spirit space was nothing. Some 
time after this, as we were going to bed — my children 
and servants being already asleep — we heard a knock- 
ing, as if in the air over our heads. There were six 
knocks, at intervals of half a minute. It was a hoi- 



LECTURE II. 31 

low, yet clear sound ; soft, but distinct. On the fol- 
lowing evening, when she was asleep — when we had 
mentioned the knocking to nobody whatever — she 
asked me whether she should soon knock to us again 1 
which, as she said it was hurtful to her, I declined." 

The wonderful case of Miss Slaughter, and the ac- 
curacy with which she stated the death of two of her 
friends, is reported in the third volume of the Medical 
Library, published in Philadelphia in 1843. Hers 
was a disease called catalepsy, attended with most 
wonderful powers of clairvoyance, which she entirely 
lost on her recovery. But there is not one person in 
fifty million who is in a state of perfect catalepsy and 
at the same time of brilliant clairvoyance. 

A case was reported in Silliman's Journal of a 
lady who, on looking at the Northern Lights became, 
by her entranced passivity, so charged that, for three- 
months, she emitted electric sparks from her fingers 
and toes whenever she came in contact with other sub- 
stances. Sometimes it could be seen, heard, and felt, 
both by herself and others. At other times it could 
be only heard, but not seen nor felt. When felt, it 
was annoying, because she was not, at that instant, 
sufficiently charged to render the parts of her body 
from whence it escaped insensible, and knowing the 
origin to be a natural cause, she was not, therefore, a 
spirit-rapper ! The account is as follows : 

" On the evening of January 28th, during a some- 



32 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

•what extraordinary display of the Northern Lights, a 
respectable lady became so highly charged with elec- 
tricity as to give out vivid electrical sparks from the 
end of each finger to the face of each of the company 
present. This did not cease with the heavenly phe- 
nomenon, but continued several months, during which 
time she was constantly charged and giving off elec- 
trical sparks to every conductor she approached. This 
was extremely vexatious, as she could not touch the 
stove, or any metallic utensil, without first giving off 
an electrical spark, with the consequent twinge. The 
state most favorable to this phenomenon was an at- 
mosphere of about eighty degrees, moderate exercise, 
and social enjoyment. It disappeared in an atmos- 
phere approaching zero, and under the debilitating ef- 
fects of fear. When seated by the stove, reading, 
»with her feet upon the fender, she gave sparks at the 
rate of three or four a minute ; and under the most 
favorable circumstances, a spark, that could be seen, 
heard, or felt, passed every second. She could 
charge others in the same way when insulated, who 
could then give sparks to others. To make it satis- 
factory that her dress did not produce it, it was 
changed to cotton and woolen without altering the 
phenomenon. The lady is about thirty, of sedentary 
pursuits and delicate state of health, having for two 
years previously suffered from acute rheumatism and 
neuralgic affections, with peculiar symptoms." 



LECTURE II. 33 

Here is a fair case. She gave off electro-magnetic 
sounds from her involuntary nervous force that could 
be heard at a considerable distance. Still her volun- 
tary powers, such as "moderate exercise and social 
enjo} T ment," had sjTnpathetically something to do with 
it. Fear entirely prevented it. The elements, as to 
degrees of heat and cold, also had an impression favor- 
able or unfavorable upon her as to the result. And is 
it not the same with mediums 1 She certainly did all 
this without any aid from spiritual agents aside from 
her own spirit. Hence the raps and sounds from all 
true mediums are produced on the same general elec- 
tro-magnetic principle, by their involuntary powers in 
the back brain, sent off from thence and discharged at 
the fingers, toes, joints, or some other part of the 
body. And coming in contact with the table, floor, or 
any substance capable of propagating and conducting 
sound, the noise will be much louder than the original, 
and appear, according as it is conducted, in some other 
part or parts of the room. A music-box held in the 
hand can scarcely be heard. But place it upon a table 
or upon the naked board of a closed piano, and the 
sound thus multiplied can be heard even in an adjoin- 
ing room; and unless the listener knows where the 
box is placed, he can not tell from whence the sounds 
of the music proceed, nor will any two* locate it alike. 
The cases of good mediums differ only from that of the 
lady noticed in Professor Silliman's Journal on the 



34 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ground of their involuntary nerves being so much more 
highly charged as to render the parts so far cataleptic 
as to destroy all sensibility at the instant of each sound 
being given off from the involuntary powers in the back 
brain, with which are connected the instincts of our 
nature. These instincts will be more fully considered 
hereafter. 

I deeply regret that the involuntary powers of the 
human mind have been, in all ages of the world, entirely 
overlooked. True, it has ever been known and ad- 
mitted that we have both voluntary and involuntary 
nerves, and it has also been uniformly admitted that 
the voluntary powers of the mind act through the vol- 
untary nerves to produce motion. But no writer, at 
least to my knowledge, has ever contended that mind 
has also its involuntary powers acting through the in- 
voluntary nerves to move the heart and carry on all 
the functions of life till I brought it forward. Medi- 
cal men have merely asserted that the motion of the 
heart and all the involuntary functions were a mere 
result of organic life independent of mind. I am the 
first, so far as my knowledge extends, who, in mental 
philosophy, has ever contended that involuntary power 
belongs to the mind of man — yes, to the mind of the 
Eternal. I say this, ladies and gentlemen, not as a 
matter of arrogance, but as a matter of justice, and 
against the pretensions of those who, in their published 
books, and without giving credit, have used my ideas 



LECTURE II. 85 

as though they were original with them, to build up 
theories at my expense. 

For the information of the younger part of my au- 
dience, I would say, that by the voluntary powers of 
the mind, we mean those by which we will and act. 
We move the head, the eyes, the tongue, and lips by 
the voluntary powers of the mind, and by the same 
power we move a finger, or the hands and arms to 
handle, and the feet and limbs to walk. At will we 
bend the body and ply every joint of the entire system. 
This, all are aware, is effected by the voluntary pow- 
ers of the mind residing in the front brain, acting 
through the voluntary nerves. But over the motions 
of the heart, lungs, the circulation of the blood, the 
digestion of the food by the stomach, and all those 
movements on which the functions of life depend — over 
these we have no voluntary control. Awake or asleep, 
the heart continues to beat whether we will or not, and 
all the phenomena of life proceed as usual in their des- 
tined course. All these movements are produced by 
the involuntary powers of the mind residing in the 
back brain, acting through the involuntary nerves, 
and are not the result, as has been uniformly supposed, 
of mere organic life entirely distinct from mind. That 
these two forces both belong to mind is certain, 
because take the spirit from the body, and all motion, 
both voluntary and involuntary, instantly ceases. Hence 
all the energies of reason, thought, understanding, con- 



6b , SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

sciousness, and will, belong exclusively to the voluntary 
powers of the mind. And all the movements on which 
the functions of life depend, and all the instinctive 
energies or intuitions of our being, belong to the invol- 
untary powers of the mind. Hence man has his in- 
stincts superior to all creatures in existence, and mind, 
like every other faculty in man, is double. 

We perceive, then, that the voluntary power of the 
mind can move or suspend motion, can act or cease 
acting, can reason, think, understand, and will, or sus- 
pend all these, as in sleep. But the involuntary power 
of the mind continues its ceaseless self-motion through 
every period of existence, when we are asleep as well 
.as when awake. It has no power to stop, because mo- 
tion is an inherent attribute of its nature. Seeing, 
hearing, feeling, taste, and smell belong to the invol- 
untary powers of the mind, where all impressions 
through the senses are first received, and from thence 
are instantly transmitted to the voluntary powers of 
the mind, where they are compared and formed into 
ideas by the power of what we term reason and asso- 
ciation. Though the voluntary and involuntary powers 
of the mind are entirely distinct attributes, belonging 
to two distinct brains, yet there is, at the same time, 
an indissoluble connection existing between the two, 
and also a strong sympathy to concur together in one 
common state and mode of action, through indulgence 
and habit. 



LECTURE II. 37 

A boy, for instance, who has the perfect .control of 
his voice in conversation, may take pains to imitate his 
stuttering playmate, to whom he is strongly attached, 
and with whom he is in daily intercourse, till he be- 
comes a confirmed stutterer. By indulging in this act, 
the voluntary powers gradually grew weaker in their 
natural force for want of correct action, and the invol- 
untary powers, by constant force of habit gathered 
strength, until through indulgence, sympatic, and 
habit they so far got the upper hand that he lost, in a 
good degree, the voluntary control of his own voice. 
When he exercises all his voluntary power to speak 
smoothly, the involuntary power interferes through 
habit, indulgence, and sympathy, and stuttering is the 
result. But this is in conversation only, while in sing- 
ing he never practiced stuttering. The greatest stut- 
terers that ever existed were never known to stutter 
while singing a song or hymn, even when the reading 
of it might be almost an impossibility for them to per- 
form. There is one point here of great importance to 
my argument. It is this, the voluntary and involun- 
tary stuttering of this boy were alike. His real stut- 
tering, which he could not control, was almost exactly 
like that which he first made in sport to mimic his 
companion, or because he considered it pretty. The 
involuntary power moved in the same track that the 
voluntary power had marked out and practiced ; for, as 
before observed, they obtain, through habit and sym- 



38 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

pathy, a strong tendency to concur together in one 
common state of action. 

This is not only so in relation to the voice in speak- 
ing, but also to the hands, feet, or body, as regards 
motion. Take, for instance, a finished performer upon 
the piano-forte. When he first commenced playing this 
instrument, it was wholly a matter of thought and vol- 
untary motion. He had to pause and think upon what 
keys to place his fingers, and then moved them wholly 
by thought. The whole was at first slowly executed, 
and entirely by his voluntary powers. Bat by degrees 
his involuntary powers, through indulgence and sympa- 
thy, had a gradual tendency, more and still more, to 
concur with the voluntary powers in the same mode of 
action, until a perfect habitude between the two was 
established. He is now the finished performer. He 
plays a distinct part of the music with each hand, and 
he sings a third. He can sweep his fingers over the 
keys with the most astonishing rapidity, and at the 
same time be looking his friend in the face, and hold- 
ing an interesting conversation with him. He does 
not think where he moves his fingers ; indeed, he can 
not do so, for his thoughts are with his friend, and 
hence his fingers, are greatly under the sympathetic 
movement of the involuntary powers. I am aware it 
will be said, that he does all this by habit, or, as it is 
generally expressed, he moves his fingers mechanic- 
ally. This is granted ; but what, I ask, is habit only 



LECTURE II. 39 

an impression successfully made and repeated, till it is 
established upon the involuntary powers of the mind 
through the medium of the senses 1 It is nothing else. 
. It is a second nature. It is the same with the violin 
or harp. Though there is some volition concerned, 
yet the greater part is performed by the involuntary 
powers of the mind instinctively concurring in the 
same mode of action with the voluntary powers. He 
plays by his instinctive energies, for with these habit 
is strongly associated, and through these impressions 
are transmitted to the voluntary powers of the mind. 
In like manner is the medium's hand moved by his in- 
voluntary powers to form those letters only that were 
practically learned by his voluntary powers at school. 
And there is as much intelligence manifested in the 
harmony of sounds as there is in the harmony of sen- 
tences. 

In order to make every thing plain as we proceed, I 
have thus far confined my remarks to habitude ; and 
in the examples furnished, we perceive the great effect 
that long- continued practice has to stamp a habit upon 
the involuntary powers of the mind and nerves to act 
in perfect harmony with the voluntary powers. I have 
noticed the voice in stuttering, and the motion of the 
fingers in producing instrumental music. But owing 
to the differently constituted minds and nerves of dif- 
ferent individuals, one person can establish a habi- 
tude much sooner than another, whether it be of the 



40 SPIRIT-MANIFESXATIONS EXAMINED. 

voice in mimicry, or song, or of the motion of the fin- 
gers on the keys of the piano. All these may be 
termed habits, and habits are perfected and established 
by repeated impressions called practice. There are 
persons, however, of a peculiar mental and nervous 
temperament, who are liable to have their involuntary 
powers of mind moved by one single impression, so 
that they are utterly unable to control their motions. 
These are in the electro-psychological state, and in 
proof of this sudden involuntary motion, I am able to 
produce thousands of instances, and from all ages of 
the world. This will be attended to in my next Lec- 
ture, will be fully argued, and, I trust, will be made 
interesting, and not only interesting, but satisfactory 
to both ladies and gentlemen. 



LECTURE III. 



41 



LECTUKE III. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In my last Lecture I promised to produce evidence 
tills evening, from past ages and various nations, that 
involuntary motion was often produced in a very sud- 
den manner, and at times by even a single impression. 
But where shall I begin my task % The religious his- 
tory of the Greeks and Romans, of Britain under the 
priesthood of the Druids, of India, and in general of 
all savage tribes, is full of instances in proof of my po- 
sition as to involuntary motion. The convulsions of the 
Pythian priestess, the contortions of the Sybil, the vast 
variety of convulsive and cateleptic phenomena among 
the devotees in India, and also among the spinning der- 
vishes of the Mohammedans, may be adduced as illus- 
trations ! Dr. Babbington says : u The imaginations 
of women are always more excitable than those of men, 
and are therefore susceptible of every folly when they 
lead a life of strict seclusion, and their thoughts are 
constantly turned inward upon themselves. Hence, in 
orphan asylums, hospitals, and convents, the nervous 
disorder of one female so easily and quickly becomes the 



42 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

disorder of all. A nun in a very large convent in 
France, by some strange impulse, began to mew like a 
cat. Shortly after, other^nuns also mewed together 
every day at a certain time for several hours in succes- 
sion, annoying the whole neighborhood with a cat- con- 
cert. This it was not in their power to prevent till they 
were relieved by a superior impression." He further 
says : " But of all the epidemics of females which I my- 
self have seen in Germany, or of which the history is 
known to me, the most remarkable is the celebrated con- 
vent epidemic of the fifteenth century, which Cardan de- 
scribes," (and which peculiarly proves what I would here 
enforce, as it regards the doctrine of impressions being 
often sudden). " A certain nun in Germany fell to biting 
all her companions. In the course of a short time all the 
nuns of this convent began biting each other. The news 
of this infatuation among the nuns soon spread, and 
passed from convent to convent through a great part of 
Germany, principally Saxony and Brandenburg. It af- 
terward visited the nunneries in Holland, and at last 
the nuns had the biting mania even as far as Rome." 

A striking illustration of the effects of the principle 
of involuntary motion, and even of involuntary imita- 
tion upon persons brought together in a close assembly, 
even where nothing is spoken, occurs in Barclay's 
" Apology for the Quakers." After speaking of the 
divine influence as coming down upon them, and " pro- 
ducing a trembling and a motion of the body upon most 



LECTURE III. 43 

if not all," he proceeds to say : " and from this the 
name Quakers, or Tremblers, was first reproachfully 
cast upon us, which if it be not one of our own choos- 
ing, yet we are not ashamed of it, but have rather rea- 
son to rejoice in this respect, even that we are sensible 
of this power that hath sometimes laid hold on our ad- 
versaries, and made them yield to us, and join with us, 
and confess to the truth before they knew what our doc- 
trine was, so that sometimes many at one meeting have 
been thus convinced, and power would sometimes also 
reach to, and wonderfully work even in little children, 
to the astonishment and admiration of many." Here, 
then, we perceive, that Quakers sitting down passive, 
and calmly waiting for some mysterious power to move 
them to rise and speak, have been seized with trem- 
bling and shaking caused by the involuntary powers, and 
over which they had no possible control any more than 
the writing medium has over his hand. It also seized 
their enemies, and even little children ; and from this 
circumstance of trembling and involuntary moving, the 
name Quakers, first cast upon them as a term of re- 
proach, took its origin. Those of their enemies, and 
also of little children, who were impressible, by simply 
sitting passive, were involuntarily moved by surround- 
ing impressions and examples, as seen in the case of the 
nuns. And are the spirit-rappings and spirit-writings 
any more mysterious than these 1 Certainly not, for 
here the whole body was not only shaken, but even raised 



44 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

to its feet, by the involuntary powers, and the tongue 
compelled to speak, and often, too, "with eloquence, their 
spontaneous impressions which, after being uttered, they 
oft remembered not, nor even that they had risen to 
speak. I knew a Quaker lady in Salem, Mass., who 
from long habits of passivity, waiting for the moving 
of the Spirit, could strike every joint of her body to- 
gether so as to be heard in an adjoining room. Nor 
was it in her power to prevent it. Her manner of de- 
votion had become itself a disease. The habit was 
stamped upon her involuntary powers, and they ruled. 
She was unceasingly rapping during her waking mo- 
ments, and was still only when she was asleep. She 
was the greatest rapping medium I ever knew. 

The case of the Seeress of Prevorst is an exception 
to all rappers of the present day, and should not be ad- 
duced by them as an instance to prove their power to 
do the same. She professed to do it by her own power, 
and not that spirits performed it through her as a me- 
dium. And if mediums of the present day quote her 
as proof of their own power, then spirit-rapping, ac- 
cording to their own confession, is at an end. He? case, 
if what is related be true, was one of an entire cata- 
leptic state of the whole nervous force, combined, at 
the same time, with a most brilliant mesmeric and sym- 
pathetic clairvoyance, and of which there is not probably 
one case in fifty million. I will not say that it was im- 
possible for her to make herself heard through the elec- 



LECTURE III. 45 

tro-magnetic discharges from her nervous force even in 
other dwellings in the village, yet it requires, I must 
confess, a very liberal stretch of credulity to believe 
that this power of sound extends so far. But as per- 
sons have made themselves heard, through this agent, 
at a short distance at least, as in the case of the lady 
reported in Professor Silliman's Journal, so others, I 
grant, may make themselves heard at a still greater 
distance, according as their involuntary nervous force 
in the back brain may become more highly charged 
and thrown out of balance with the voluntary nervous 
force in the front brain. In producing an equilibrium 
between the two forces, the sound will be more or less 
distinct, and be heard at a greater or less distance in 
the same ratio that the two forces are thrown out of 
balance with each other, and with the forces of other 
persons, and with those of surrounding elements. And 
as all the powers of attraction and repulsion belong to 
electricity, as the agent of the mind, so physical sub- 
stances may be attracted to, or repelled from, certain 
individuals in some rare instances, after having been 
charged by their hands, and when the existing relation 
of things is entirely favorable to such a result. And 
as it is the result of a strong electrical condition of the 
involuntary powers, so the individual has no direct vol- 
untary control in the matter. In the case of the lady 
reported in Silliman's Journal, we know the sounds, 
though slight, were still electrical. Hence, if in an 



46 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

other individual they are produced ever so distinct and 
loud, it still proves that they are produced by the same 
electrical cause more powerfully increased, and not by 
spirits. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, -there is no need of my 
referring back to the Grecians and Romans, nor to the 
priesthood of the Druids, nor to heathen India and 
savage tribes, nor even to the Seeress of Prevorst, for 
thousands of instances as proof of my position. There 
is no need that I should refer to the convulsions of the 
Pythian priestess — the contortions of the Sybil — the 
vast variety of convulsive and cataleptic phenomena 
among the devotees in India, and the spinning der- 
vishes among the Mohammedans to sustain my position 
of the countless wonders produced by the involuntary 
powers of the mind under a sudden or oft-repeated 
impression. I need not even go back to the involun- 
tary cat-mewing and biting-mania among the nuns of 
the fifteenth century, nor to the involuntary tremblings 
that gave rise to the name of Quakers, nor to the shud- 
derings and dancings of the Shakers under the labors 
and impressions of Ann Lee. I come nearer home. 

Dr. Stone, in his work on the " Progress of Fanati- 
cism," states that there was (now forty-five years ago) 
an extensive religious excitement in Kentucky. From 
this work, jn connection with wha,t I have gathered from 
the words of an eye-witness, I make the following con- 
densed statement. The excitement was produced by 



LECTURE III. 47 

a man partially deranged, who had been a great hunter, 
and who believed himself inspired. All his proceed- 
ings were characterized by the greatest fanaticism, and 
partook of the character of the man as a hunter. In 
order to resist the devil and make him flee from you, 
it was necessary, he contended, to give him chase, to 
tree and shoot him as we would a wolf among the 
sheep who came but to devour. As the meeting was 
held in a grove, one individual suddenly started in pur- 
suit, as he supposed, of the devil, and others of a pe- 
culiar nervous temperament, having no power to resist, 
involuntarily joined in the pursuit, and this was called 
" the running exercise /*' One climbed up into a tree 
after the devil, and others involuntarily caught the 
mania. This was called " the climbing exercise /" 
One individual was moved to bark ; and soon others, 
even though they used every method to prevent it, fell 
to involuntary barking like dogs, while others gathered 
around the tree praying for success. This was called 
u treeing the devil /" It was literally a devil chase ! 
And such a time of running, climbing, dog-barking, 
and devil-chasing was perhaps never known before, 
nor since. I doubt whether it can be surpassed in any 
of its mysteries even by the rapping, writing, and 
table-tipping business of the present day ! 

On another occasion, insisting' upon the words of 
our Savior being literally understood — " Except ye be 
converted and become as little children, ye can not enter 



48 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

into the kingdom of heaven" — one individual went to 
playing marbles in the broad aisle of the church ; others 
involuntarily joined him. An old man undertook to 
expostulate, saying that it was carrying matters, as he 
thought, rather too far ! On hearing this, an old lady, 
who was down upon her knees among the marble-play- 
ers, sprung to her feet, grasped her umbrella, and, 
taking a side-saddle seat on it, rode down the aisle in 
full childlike glee. On seeing this, the old gentleman 
could resist no longer — seized his cane, threw himself 
astride of it, like any boy, and rode down the aisle af- 
ter her, exclaiming in a sing-song voice — " Oh, my dear 
brethren and sisters, I feel the full childlike spirit car- 
rying me to heaven on a wooden hoss !" Several oth- 
ers now caught the mania, having no power to resist 
it. Others, less serious, broke out in convulsive 
laughter, shouted and hurraed, and the meeting 
broke up in one scene of confusion. It was not in 
the power of these persons to resist it. The involun- 
tary powers, by one single impression, took the entire 
and irresistible control. 

I will introduce one more instance as proof of invol- 
untary impressions being often sudden and irresistible. 
In Stone's " History of Fanaticism," p. 312, he refers 
to it, calling it the jerking exercise, and states that it 
had its origin in Kentucky. This may be so ; but my 
information in relation to it is confined to North Car- 
olina, which I gathered during my travels in that State 



LECTURE III. 49 

in 1832. The substance of it is as follows : A man 
setting himself up as a preacher who had received a 
commission direct from Heaven, and as clergymen were 
not willing to admit him into their pulpits, he traveled 
about, preaching in groves in various sections of the 
State. He was a man of a very nervous tempera- 
ment, and when he became excited in speaking, his 
gestures were violent, yet impressive. Still they were 
made by his voluntary powers. He possessed, also, a 
good faculty for expressing the various passions and 
emotions of the soul in his countenance, according to 
the sentiment he was uttering. These gestures of his 
hands and motions of his face, and even feet, would 
involuntarily continue for some time after he took his 
seat, while the concluding hymn was being sung, and 
frequently commence before he rose to speak, and, in- 
deed, at any time when he was excited. But as he, 
in all these cases, exerted his voluntary powers to 
keep his hands, face, and feet still, so the conflict be- 
tween the voluntary and involuntary powers produced, 
not gestures, but most violent, sudden, and irregular 
jerkings and twitchings. And instead of expressing 
the passions of the soul in his countenance, he made 
up the most horrible faces that can be well conceived. 
As he could not account for these things in himself, 
and as it was not in his power to prevent them, so he 
attributed the whole to the power of the spirit ! 

Now it so happened, that every one of his converts 
3 



50 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

was at first seized with these most singular spasmodic 
motions of the limbs and contortions of the counte- 
nance. Hence these involuntary motions were called 
" the jerks " and whenever any one was converted, it 
was expressed by saying that such a one had got the 
jerks ! The news of these most singular manifesta- 
tions spread over the whole region round about. Per- 
sons came from a distance of twenty, and even thirty 
miles, to hear him and see the wonders. And it so 
happened, at length, that as many of those who came 
laughing and mocking were seized with the jerks as of 
those who were in reality converted. This was pro- 
nounced by the eccentric speaker as the curse of God 
upon those who scoffed. But the mania spread, excit- 
ing the mirth and ridicule of some, and the astonish- 
ment and awe of others, till the excitement became 
general. And such a time of jerking, twitching, and 
making up wry faces at each other, as existed in that 
section, it is difficult to imagine, or even describe. 
Here, then, is a striking proof of the fact, that the 
involuntary powers of some can be made to act sud- 
denly — even by one solitary impression made upon the 
mind. 

It is often asked, from what cause could these 
strange rappings, and at a certain time, and in differ- 
ent sections, have arisen, if not from spirits, and 
through what influence could they have spread with 
such rapidity over the Union 1 I answer, that they 



LECTURE III. 51 

arose from the same cause that the jerks did — namely, 
from the involuntary powers of the mind. And in 
like manner, as the jerks, they spread over the coun- 
try through the sympathy of excitement. Hence 
these rapping and writing mediums, and these table- 
tipping and furniture-moving mediums have honestly, 
and just as certainly got the jerks as those of whom 
we have been speaking in Kentucky and North Car- 
olina. They move the hand to write with a violent 
motion — with a kind of spasm, so that the pencil of- 
ten flies from it and leaves the hand convulsed as 
though it were in a fit. This proves that the motion 
is produced by the involuntary powers of the mind 
and nerves, for it is these that cause a fit. 

From what, I ask, arose the tremblings of the 
Quakers, and the shudderings and dancings of the 
Shakers 1 I answer, that they arose from the invol- 
untary powers of the mind. By sitting perfectly pas- 
sive, in the firm conviction that some mysterious 
power would come upon them and move them to rise 
upon their feet, and utter language, or to move in the 
dance, was the cause of producing the expected result, 
because the involuntary powers have a strong tendency 
to concur in the same state of action with the volun- 
tary powers. The spirit-manifestations, so called, 
arise from the same cause as the Quaker-tremblings 
and the Shaker-dancings. They arise from the mys- 
terious movements and operations of the involuntary 



52 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

powers of the human mind, acting through the invol- 
untary nerves. They arise from the same cause that 
produced the cat-mewing and dog-biting mania among 
the nuns — the running, barking, jerking, climbing, and 
devil- treeing mania of Kentucky, and the umbrella 
and stick-riding power through the broad aisle of the 
church. I therefore repeat it, that the mediums are 
sincerely honest, and have honestly got the jerks, and 
can no more control their hands, joints, feet, and toes 
from writing, rapping, tipping tables, and moving 
about furniture, than the nuns could prevent their 
cat-concerts and. bitings. Their only wrong consists 
in indulging and strengthening the habit by practice, 
and then applying the results to the agency of spirits, 
by which many are rendered insane, some commit sui- 
cide, whole families are distressed, and their dearest 
hopes blighted, as they see their domestic sun, that 
rose so fair, go down in blood. If this be the work 
of spirits, it seems strange that, like the midnight 
prowling hyena, they feed upon the living, the dying, 
and the dead. 

They began by simply rapping. Soon they found 
out what the rappings meant, through the a-b-c busi- 
ness. It increased gradually to abbreviating words. 
But as the whole a-b-c rapping concern with its ab- 
breviations was too slow, it advanced to the medium- 
writing mania, and to tipping and moving furniture 
about as a manifestation of spirit-power. From this 



LECTUHE III. 53 

it advanced to the spirit-mesmerizing power, and to 
the spirit-talking power through the medium's organs 
— compelling the medium to imitate the voice and mo- 
tions that were the spirit's while in its earthly tab- 
ernacle ; and it has advanced to the striking and 
ear-pinching power, and to the dragging-out-of-door 
power ! Where it will end, God only knows — I do 
not. But I hope it will not advance to the nun-biting 
power — to the umbrella and stick-riding business, nor 
end in a devil-hunt ! The subject being founded in 
our nature, must be brought to science, and subjected 
to a rational investigation. 

My evidence in proof of involuntary motion in all 
its varieties and forms is now produced, and will cer- 
tainly cover any involuntary motion or action that 
ever transpired among mediums, whether it be invol- 
untary writing — involuntary mesmerizing — involuntary 
speaking — involuntary table-tipping and furniture- 
moving — involuntary striking and rapping, or involun- 
tary dancing, running, or climbing. But it will now 
be said, that though the lecturer has accounted for in- 
voluntary motion, yet so far as the manifestations are 
concerned, there is intelligence connected with these 
motions for which he has not accounted. "This I ad- 
mit, and to-morrow evening I will commence the con- 
sideration of this intelligence. Its great and stirring 
agencies will be brought forward — laid open — argued, 
and the spirit-manifestations annihilated. 



54: SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 



LEOTUEE IV. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In the three Lectures to which you have listened, I 
have taken a general survey of the spirit-manifestations, 
and shown that all real mediums are honest, and are im- 
pelled to act as they do, without being able to resist it. 
I have, in this respect, given them an ingenuous and 
candid defense, so far as their sincerity and honor are 
involved. I am aware that the writing medium can 
avoid taking a pen in hand, and sitting down passively 
to await the result of involuntary writing. I am 
aware that mediums can avoid sitting down to await 
involuntary rapping, or table-tipping, and furniture- 
moving. And by so doing, I grant that the spirit- 
manifestations would soon disappear from our world. 
But what I mean is this. If the real medium sits 
down to obtain any manifestations, and in case they 
are obtained, it is by his involuntary powers, without 
his being able to resist it. In proof of this, I have 
produced evidence from the earliest ages down to the 
present day. I have produced examples of every vari- 
ety of involuntary motion, and even more wonderful 
and startling in proof of my position than any thing 



LECTURE IV. 55 

connected with the spirit-manifestations, and yet the 
"whole was accomplished by the involuntary powers of 
the mind. 

I grant that there are false mediums, who perform 
all they do hy trick, and do it knowingly. But this is 
not the case with real mediums — they are honest and 
sincere. Hence, I repeat that the involuntary powers 
of the mind, and the instincts of our nature connected 
with them, have been in all ages of the world entirely 
overlooked. I have called to my aid the arm of philo- 
sophy, and clearly shown how sounds may be produced 
by electro-magnetic discharges, caused by the energy 
of the involuntary powers of the mind, and without the 
aid of spirits. In proof of this, I also refered to, and 
cited a well-known case reported in, Silliman's Jour- 
nal, of such electric discharges and sounds proceeding 
from a lady, resembling those made by mediums ; and 
as we are bound by reason and common sense to adopt 
the Natural for the solution of any phenomenon be- 
fore we appeal to the Supernatural, so all the raps 
and sounds made by mediums are produced electri- 
cally, on the same general principle, from some parts of 
their own bodies, and without the aid of spirits. Hav- 
ing finished my First Position, and argued involun- 
tary motion in all its forms, I am now ready to proceed 
to the most interesting part of my subject. 

My Second Position is to account for the intelli- 
gence connected with these manifestations. 



56 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

In my second and third Lectures, I have several 
times referred to the front and back brains, and to 
the voluntas and involuntary powers of the mind re- 
siding in them, and acting through their appropriate 
nerves. Before I proceed to show how intelligence is 
connected with the spirit-manifestations, permit me 
first to notice, more particularly, the human brain and 
mind, so as to be clearly and distinctly understood by 
the younger part of my audience. 

Every part of the human system, we may say, is 
double. We have two hands, two feet, two glands of 
taste, two eyes, and two ears. The heart is double, 
"having its two auricles and two ventricles, and so is 
even the circulating system double, the arterial and 
venous. The human brain is likewise double, and so 
is the mind, that pervades and actuates it, also double. 
The positive and negative forces respond to, and bal- 
ance each other, and pervade all nature. When I say 
that the brain is doable, I mean that we have in reality 
two distinct brains, each performing its own distinct 
office, so long as they are kept in proper harmony with 
each other. The one is called the cerebrum, which lies 
in the front part of the skull, occupying the greater 
portion of its cavity ; and the other is called the cere- 
bellum, and occupies the back portion of the cavity of 
the skull. So that I may be understood by all, I will 
call the cerebrum the front brain, and the cerebellum 
the back brain* 



LECTURE IV. 57 

The front brain is perfect by itself, having its two 
hemispheres, and also its lobes. It is double, and is 
the organ of all voluntary motion, by which alone we 
move the head, the hands, the feet, or the whole body. 
This front brain is the residence, the earthly house of 
that part of the mind that exercises volition, thought, 
understanding, and reason. If one half of this brain 
be paralyzed, it renders half of the system useless, so 
that we are unable to move it. 

The back brain is also perfect by itself, having its 
own distinct lobes, is likewise double, and is the organ 
of involuntary motion and organic life. It throbs the 
heart, moves the blood, gives power to the stomach to 
digest its food, and imparts energy to the glands to 
produce their secretions. It is the residence, the 
earthly house of that part of the mind that exercises 
involuntary power in accordance with the harmony of 
the universe. If I may be indulged the expression, it 
moves, it rolls on with external nature, drinks in, and 
feels her impressions, and scans them by the power of 
its own intuitions. This part of the mind contains all 
the instincts of our nature. Hence it does not will, 
understand, and reason, as the voluntary department 
of the mind in the front brain reasons. It intuitively 
knows, or, if I may so speak, it involuntarily reasons. 
Under certain circumstances and conditions, like the 
mesmeric or psychological state, it takes the throne, 
compels reason to bow to its mandate, and with the 

3* 



58 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

brightness of its blaze throws all the voluntary powers 
of the soul, residing in the front brain, into comparative 
darkness, and pours out the eloquence of truth like a 
river of life, clear as costal, from its throne. When 
the back brain is thus roused into action, the front 
brain knows nothing of its secret doings, its intuitive 
powers, and instinctive energies. Each brain may 
manifest its intelligence and impressions separate and 
independent, as it were, of the other, yet there is, at 
the same time, an undisturbed harmony, a sympathetic 
connection existing between the two. The first mani- 
fests itself by the involuntary power of thought and 
reason. The second manifests itself by the involuntary 
power of intuition and instinct, and while doing so, 
the first has no remembrance, no knowledge of its acts. 
This is a state well-known to medical men and physi- 
ological writers, who call it double consciousness. 
Please to bear in mind that the brain is double, as a 
meet tabernacle adapted to the living spirit or mind as 
its inhabitant, which is also double. Seeing, hearing, 
feeling, taste, and smell are involuntary. If our eyes 
are open, we can not avoid seeing ; if there is a sound 
near us, we can not avoid hearing ; and if there is an 
odor, we can not avoid smelling. As our senses are 
involuntary, so they belong to the involuntary power. 
Hence all impressions, received through the senses, are 
first conveyed to the involuntary department of the 
mind in the back brain as the grand magazine — the 



LECTURE IV. 59 

kitchen — where they are prepared, and then passed on 
to the fields of volition, thought, and reason in the 
front brain, to be digested and manufactured into ideas 
by the power of association. 

Before proceeding any farther, Aye will turn our at- 
tention, for a moment, to instinct itself. And what, I 
ask, are we to understand by instinct ? Answer : It 
is a certain power or disposition of mind by which, in- 
dependent of all instruction or experience, animals are 
unerringly directed to do spontaneously whatever is 
necessary for the preservation of the individual or the 
continuance of the kind. It is an inborn desire or 
aversion, not determined by reason or deliberation. 
It is the power that determines the will of brutes. It 
is an intuition. And as it is an intuition of certain 
things that exist in the external world, so instinct can 
not reason, or even will, in regard to such things, be-' 
cause it knows. It has the power to impress and 

MOVE THE VOLUNTARY PART OF THE MIND TO WILL 

and act. Instinct is not against reason, but acts in 
concert with it. Instinct receives impressions from 
the external world, as the raw material, to supply rea- 
son with ideas. 

The infant of an hour's existence shows, by the ac- 
tion of its head and mouth, not only its mysterious 
impression that food exists, but also the motion and 
manner by which it is to come in contact with it. 
And when brought in contact with the breast, it re- 



60 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

moves the air by suction, and having thus produced a 
vacuum in its mouth, the fluid naturally rushes in 
and nourishes this new-born being. This is all done 
in accordance with the soundest principles of hydrau- 
lic philosophy, and which it required a master-mind to 
explain. 

The duck, as soon as hatched into existence, intu- 
itively knows there is water, and feeling at the same 
time an inborn desire to swim, directs his course un- 
erringly to the stream. The young bird, the moment 
it bursts its shell, and before its eyes are opened to 
the light, raises its head and opens its beak the first 
time the mother approaches the nest with food. It 
does this by intuition, and without any process of rea- 
soning whatever. 

The bee selects a storehouse in some hollow tree, 
impervious to rains, inaccessible to storms. He di- 
rects his course unerringly to flowery fields — extracts 
his honey, and builds the cells of his comb all exactly 
six square. This he never learned to do, but he 
knows it intuitively, or by what we call instinct, which 
belongs to his involuntary powers, and by these all his 
voluntary movements are directed. His instinct and 
reason, and his voluntary and involuntary powers, all 
act and move in perfect harmony. Instinct often 
seems to foreknow. It has been noted, that if swal- 
lows make their holes in the banks of the river higher 
than in former years, we may be sure of an unusual 



LECTURE IV. 61 

flood. A barn, destined to be struck by lightning and 
burned up during the summer, Las been noted to have 
been deserted by swallows, even though they had oc- 
cupied it every previous summer to build their nests 
and rear their young. This is intuition, belongs to 
the involuntary power of the creature, and seems al- 
most like inspiration. 

Once more. Take, for instance, a toad from the 
North and convey him to the far South, where he has 
never been, and put him in battle with -a large poison- 
ous spider of that section, and of a species he has 
never before seen. Place a quantity of plantain, say 
three rods distant, on one side of the battle-ground, 
and the same quantity four rods distant on the other 
side. The toad, on receiving a w r ound, will cease 
fighting, and, after a momentary hesitation, will go di- 
rectly to the nearest plantain, eat the leaf, and return 
to the conflict. Now, while he is engaged in battle, 
bring the plantain on the opposite side a few feet 
nearer to him than the other. On being again wound- 
ed, he instantly starts, without any hesitation, for the 
same leaf before visited — but soon stops, turns about, 
and goes to the nearest spot for his remedy. Now, in 
this case, we clearly perceive the operations of both in- 
stinct and reason. Pope with great propriety asks — 

" Who taught the nations of the field and wood 
To shun their poison and to choose their food ? 
Prescient the tides or tempests to withstand, 



62 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? 
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true, 
From poisonous herbs extracts the healing dew ?" 

All creatures have the -will-power and the reasoning 
faculties in a certain degree, and these both belong to 
their voluntary powers of mind, while their instincts 
belong to their involuntary powers of mind. In the 
same ratio that their reasoning faculties are low in 
the scale of being, their instinctive faculties appear 
greater, because instinct, in all such cases, becomes 
the guide, and hence the ruling power. But in the 
same ratio that the reasoning faculties are high in the 
scale of being, the instinctive powers appear to be 
less, because reason, in this case, becomes the guide, 
and hence the ruling power. But still the number of 
instinctive and reasoning faculties in each creature are 
equal. By this I mean, that if the oyster, for in- 
stance, has two instinctive faculties, then he has two 
of reason. If the next higher link has three of in- 
stinct, it has three of reason — if the next has four of 
instinct it has four of reason — and if the next link has 
five faculties of instinct, it has five of reason, and so on 
till we rise up to man, whose instinctive and reasoning 
faculties are also equal in number, but exceedingly 
more numerous than in any other creature below him. 
Indeed, we may safely say that they are equal in num- 
ber to the instinctive and intellectual faculties of all 
creatures in the chain of life below him combined. 



LECTURE IV. 63 

Hence when reason, which may err, is so low in the 
scale of being that it can not be a safe guide, then the 
creature, in his voluntary movements, is naturally im- 
pelled to follow his instinct, which is intuitive and un- 
erring. The poet again says : 

" Say, where full instinct is the unerring guide, 
What pope or council can they need beside ? 
Reason however able, cool at best, 
Cares but for service, or but serves when prest ; 
Stays till we call, and then not often near, 
But honest instinct comes a vclunteer ; 
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit, 
While still too wide or short is human wit; 
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, 
Which heavier reason labors at in vain. 
This too serves always, reason never long, 
One must go right, the other may go wrong. 
See then the acting and comparing powers, 
One in their nature, which are two in ours ! 
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can, 
In this 'tis God directs — in that 'tis man." 

In this language, Pope gives the supremacy as to 
honor, unerring truth and righteousness to instinct, 
because it is the faculty in which God directs — while 
reason may go wrong, because it is the faculty in 
which man directs. In these respects Pope is cor- 
rect. But the idea, that the creatures have nothing 
but instinct, and no reason, is far, very far from 
truth. In this respect he follows the universal opin- 
ion of his day. The truth is, that the instinctive and 



64 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

reasoning faculties, in any one creature, are equal in 
number, for mind is double, and the faculties must 
correspond one to the other, so as to exactly balance 
the positive and negative forces, for without these the 
creature could not act. The fact, that all creatures, 
however low in the scale of being, do at times exer- 
cise reason as well as instinct, has greatly puzzled nat- 
uralists who have assigned them but one set of facul- 
ties, and then marveled how instinct could have taught 
them to devise and execute a work which, if it had been 
done by a human being, would have been attributed to 
reason. But as all creatures possess a will, and also 
the voluntary and involuntary powers, so they must pos- 
sess the faculty of reason, as well as that of instinct. 

I regard man as a microcosm of the universe. A 
portion of the elementary particles of all substances 
are concentered in his body and represented in his 
being. And in his complicate organism is involved the 
organism of all creatures below him, and his intelli- 
gence is equal in amount to the intelligence in all. 
And as reason is the controlling power by which his 
actions are principally governed, so he is, on this 
account, considered as almost entirely, if not quite, 
destitute of instinct. But this conclusion is an errone- 
ous one. It is just as erroneous as to suppose, on the 
other hand) that the creatures below him are destitute 
of reason, because they are principally governed by 
instinct. As man stands at the head of creation, so 



LECTURE IV. 65 

he has a greater number of reasoning faculties than 
any other creature in existence. Indeed, if we select 
one individual of each species of the animal chain be- 
low him, we shall find that his intelligence is equal in 
amount to the combined intelligence in all, and asserts 
his superiority over them. And man's instinctive and 
reasoning faculties are also equal, both as it regards 
their number and power. And, moreover, so far as his 
reasoning faculties are superior to the combined reason 
of the various grades below him, so far, also, are his 
instinctive faculties superior to theirs. 

If man is destitute of instinct, how then, I ask, can 
he ever be impressed with a presentiment, which is a 
previous involuntary idea 1 There must be something 
in his internal nature that corresponds with what is to 
happen in the external world, and a connection between 
the two to convey the impression to his instinctive 
faculties. If man is destitute of instinct, how then 
can he, in the mesmeric state, or in somnambulism, or 
in catalepsy, or in any abnormal condition, intuitively 
perceive things that are beyond the grasp of his intel- 
lectual faculties — things that his reason never con- 
ceived 1 All this is impossible, unless we admit that 
he possesses the instinctive powers which are implanted 
in his mysterious nature for a noble end, and are prin- 
cipally intended and reserved for a higher and more 
glorified state of action in that world where death, and 
pain, and change shall be no more. What is mesmer- 



66 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ism only the more fully arousing of the human instincts 
from slumber into action? They take the throne, 
compel reason to cease her action, and through the elo- 
quence of the tongue they pour out full gushing truth 
from the involuntary fountain of the soul. 

It will now be said, that on this principle instinct is 
unerring ; and as instinct says that it is spirits, so it 
must be true. I reply, that instinct is unerring in 
both man and brute, when left to its own natural im- 
pulses, independent of foreign impressions. It can be 
made to err by reason, by education, or habit. If we 
leave all substances in nature as they grow in the field 
and wood, and permit each creature in its wild state, 
where God has placed it, to follow the impulses of its 
nature, and its instinct will unerringly lead it to avoid the 
poisonous and to eat the wholesome substances. These 
are as the Creator has mingled them ; and as he directs 
his creatures by instinct, so they have nothing to fear. 
But man may extract arsenic, and combine this or any 
other deadly poisons with breadstuffs or fruits, and kill 
the creatures that feed upon them. Here reason causes 
instinct to err. But this is not of God's, but of man's 
mingling. Or creatures may be taken from their wild 
state, domesticated, and, by education or habit, may 
become fond of mixtures prepared and given them by 
man. Hence they will be more likely to sicken, and even 
have their lives shortened, than in their wild, natural 
state. Here education and habit induce instinct to err. 



LECTURE IV. 67 

^ut much more is instinct in man liable to err under 
the influence, education, habit, and all the "wily seduc- 
tions of reason, than in the lower animals. Reason, 
education, and habit, directed and influenced by wrong 
impressions, have greatly stifled, if not extinguished, 
the workings of instinct in the human soul. To bring 
it back again to its natural power, all men should sit 
down each day, a few moments, entirely passive, and 
thus cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with their 
intuitive energies, till they hear the silvery tones of the 
still small voice of conscience within, and not of de- 
parted spirits without — till they hear from the pro- 
found depths of their own intuitions, that hold their 
residence in the involuntary powers of their own minds, 
and not in the spheres. This instinct is conscience, 
that god in man. When uninfluenced by foreign im- 
pressions, it is truth. It is the living oracle through 
which God has spoken to his servants in dreams, in 
visions, in silent and passive meditation. It is the 
living oracle through which Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
and Daniel consulted the Eternal, and through which, 
as his inspired servants, they heard his voice speaking 
in the cool stillness of the day in silent and passive 
meditation. Through this medium, and not through 
reason, they were inspired to speak the mind of God 
above. It is the living oracle which we should consult 
when night mantles the plain. We should consult it 
in the face of divine revelation already given to the 



68 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

world, and not to obtain another. Our involuntary 
power of mind . is the grand magazine in which are 
stored up all the intuitions of our instinctive energies. 
All the germs of truth that the never-ending ages of 
eternity will unfold, and stamp upon our ever-expand- 
ing intellectual and reasoning faculties, are there. A 
finite portion of all substances in being is in man, so 
that he bears about with him, wherever he moves, the 
impression of infinity and eternity. 

Having made these general remarks in relation to 
instinct, and brought into the field a sufficient amount 
of matter, I will now take into consideration the case 
of a true medium as an example, and will therefore 
suppose an excellent one. And here, ladies and gen- 
tlemen, I must contend, and I do it without hesitation, 
and with the most perfect confidence, that the true 
medium is made to write, to tip tables, and to move 
and fling about furniture, and to produce rappings, 
through the involuntary power of his own mind, and 
that no other spirit has any agency in this matter. 
The medium, for instance, sits down and resigns all 
power over the voluntary nerves, under the impression 
that some immortal spirit will move the hand to write, 
and thus make some communication through him. He 
assumes a state of entire passivity, and, so far as the 
motion of his hand is concerned, he remains perfectly 
indifferent. He does not will nor exercise even the 
slightest mental effort to move his hand. But soon the 



LECTURE IV. 69 

hand does move, either more slowly or with far more 
than ordinary rapidity, and a sentence is produced. 
But in the production of this sentence the medium, 
really and honestly, had no more conscious volition than 
any other person present. 

How then, it may be asked, did he form letters with- 
out thinking ? I answer, that it was intuitively pro- 
duced by the involuntary powers of the mind, through 
the nervous force of the arm, and by a nervous sym- 
pathy they would produce such letters only, as by long- 
established habit he had uniformly written by the vol- 
untary powers of his mind. I have clearly shown, in 
the case of the stuttering boy, and the fingers of the 
musician upon the keys of the piano, that the voluntary 
and involuntary powers have a strong tendency to con- 
cur together in one common state of action. Hence it 
would be impossible for the medium, on the principle 
I am arguing, to write Hebrew or Greek letters, who 
had never practiced forming them. If it be said, this 
has been done in one instance at least, and a fac-simile 
of it has been published, I reply that it is a sheer hoax, 
and has no foundation in truth. 

If it be asked, why are not the letters in the medi- 
um's own handwriting 1 I answer, that they are, if he 
writes with the same speed, be that slow or fast, that he 
usually does in his business matters. Permit me, in my 
turn, to ask — If the spirit of Webster or Clay moves 
the medium's hand, why is it not in the handwriting 



70 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

of these statesmen 1 I have seen two communications 
purporting to be from the hand of Clay, and one from 
the hand of Webster, since their death, but they bear 
no possible resemblance to their earthly chirography. 
And do Webster and Clay go backward in eternity ? 
Their communications show, that they have lost their 
eloquence and good sense by which they moved men's 
souls on earth. Clay has lost his knowledge of En- 
glish grammar and composition, and become only about 
half-witted ! And Webster, Franklin, and Washing- 
ton are not much better off ! Why are these things so 1 
I answer, because the spirits of these mighty, honored 
dead have made no communications to the living — and 
hence these writings bear the impress of the medium's 
own measure of capacity and scholarship. If the me- 
dium is unlearned and half-witted, his communication 
is so likewise, and hence he fathers his silly nonsense 
upon Henry Clay. Why, I ask, does the medium not 
write in Greek, when he consults the spirit of Homer 
or Socrates 1 — or in Hebrew, when he consults the spirit 
of Moses, or of any of the prophets? How happen 
they all to be familiar with the English language, and 
to move the medium's hand to form our letters only ? 
If y ou reply, that through a German medium they write 
the German language, through a Frenchman they 
write French, and through an Indian they write the 
Indian tongue, I have only to say, that this is not 
uniformly the case. It is pretended, that through 



LECTURE IV. 71 

English mediums communications have been written 
in various languages, some of which are obsolete or 
dead, and most difficult to write both as regards the 
composition and the letters. Was this a freak of fancy 
in the spirit? It looks very much like an effort artifi- 
cially made. True, I have no confidence that this has 
ever been done by fair means, as other experiments have. 
But if spirits have any hand in the matter, this would 
be the most natural and convincing mode. If Homer, 
the prince of £ong, uniformly breathed his living verse in 
classic Greek, and Virgil poured out his unrivaled elo- 
quence in Latin through all mediums, and if Moses and 
the prophets communicated in Hebrew, and the Indian's 
spirit in his native tongue, the world would soon be 
converted to a belief in spirit-manifestations. Do not 
say, that this would be inconvenient, for we have trans- 
lators by the thousand. But an occasional specimen, 
given in some dead language, " like angel's visits, few 
and far between," looks suspicious, and savors too much 
of a freak of fancy, to be believed by any candid mind. 



72 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 



LECTUKE V. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The involuntary motions of every part of the human 
system I have fully and decidedly sustained, and this 
will cover any possible argument that can be presented, 
as regards the involuntary movement of the hand in 
writing. But the great point upon which they dwell 
is, that intelligence is displayed when the medium 
neither wills nor even thinks. In urging this point, 
they have entirely overlooked the intuitions or in- 
stincts of the involuntary powers of the mind, of which 
it gives the most wonderful and astonishing manifes- 
tations while in the mesmeric or electro-psychological 
state. In this state, the mind in the back brain is 
aroused and brought into a more perfect communica- 
tion with the doings and operations of nature, in- 
stinctively sees things as they are (if left uninfluenced 
by other minds), and through habit and sympathy it 
performs in some measure the office of the front brain. 
It presses at times the voluntary part of the mind, if 
I may so speak, into its service, compelling it to act in 
concert with its own intuitions. These instincts, how- 
ever, while acting, are impressed by surrounding cir- 






LECTURE V. 73 

cumstances, by previously established convictions, and 
by the sympathy of other minds. 

But if it be said, that human instinct can not mani- 
fest such astonishing intelligence, transcending even 
the powers of reason, and that it must require the in- 
tervention of spirits to account for its manifestation, 
how, then, I ask, can instinct in the lower creatures 
manifest the most surprising intelligence, according to 
their grade, without the aid of spirits ? How do crea- 
tures, without the aid of instruction, intuitively know 
the medical properties of plants 1 Do the departed 
spirits of their own species teach them this 1 How do 
the birds of heaven so perfectly build their nests 1 
How does the spider so curiously weave his web? 
or the bee so skillfully build the cells of her comb all 
exactly six square ? How does the swallow foreknow 
an approaching inundation, and make the holes in the 
river's bank higher than in former years 1 

"Prescient the tides or tempests to withstand, 
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ?" 

How are we to account for these, and the countless 
other wonders that have struck with surprise the most 
gifted minds of all ages 1 How can instinct in these 
creatures manifest such astonishing intelligence with- 
out the aid of reason or instruction 1 And is this in- 
telligence any evidence that the departed kindred 
spirits of their own species act through them as me- 
diums and produce it 1 If so, how then did the first 

4 



74 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

creatures manifest their instinctive intelligence before 
any of their race died, and when as yet there were no 
kindred spirits of their kind to influence them? But 
as it is admitted, that all creatures, from the lowest in 
the chain of being up to man, manifest their ever 
varied intelligence by instinct, and without the aid of 
departed spirits of their own species to produce it, 
then why is not man, the highest link of the living 
chain, able to do the same, and to manifest an instinc- 
tive intelligence beyond the grasp of his reason, and 
without the aid of the departed spirits of his race to 
produce it? If he is not, how then could Adam and 
his descendants for the first eight hundred years re- 
ceive most wonderful impressions, and manifest a simi- 
lar intelligence independent of their reason before any 
of their race died, or before there were any departed 
spirits to act through them as mediums ? It appears 
at least that they got along without any guardian spirits 
to watch over, protect, and influence them. In all 
states of brilliant catalepsy, somnambulism, mesmeric 
clairvoyance, and electro-psychology we see abundance 
of this kind of intelligence displayed. And in one of 
these states the medium-writer must be. There is one 
medium who went about lecturing in a spirit-mes- 
merized state, as it was termed, and when done, he 
knew not what he had uttered. How was this accom- 
plished 1 He said it was done by the spirit that mes- 
merized him speaking through his organs ! But I 



LECTURE V. <5 

answer, it was done in the same manner that the 
medium writes by the spirit. And he obtains his in- 
telligence, all his knowledge, from the same source 
that all mesmeric and psychological subjects do, and 
this is, not from spirits, but from the instincts of the 
involuntary powers of the mind in the back brain. 
This will be more fully noticed hereafter. 

But before arguing this point, I will speak of the 
condition of a good medium, and of mediums in gen- 
eral. The Seeress of Prevorst was no spirit-rapping 
medium, nor did she pretend to be. Her case, take it 
all in all, is one in about fifty million. The condition 
of a good medium can be attained through entire pas- 
sivity or resignation of all the voluntary powers of 
mind and body ; but by those persons only who are 
naturally in the electro-psychological state, or who do 
involuntarily, or by a mental abstraction, pass instantly 
into, and out of, the mesmeric state, or who may fall 
into a cataleptic condition. These are the only per- 
sons who can become mediums of the highest order by 
a little practice. Hence mediums are more or less 
perfect in proportion to the excellency of their invol- 
untary nervous development, and its susceptibility to 
a psychological or mesmeric impression. Some per- 
sons are naturally in the electro-psychological state, 
were born in it, live in it, and will die in it. All such 
become mediums of the finest class, and by practice 
become perfect ; for practice, after all, has much to do 



76 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

with this matter, as it tends to establish a habitude of 
action upon the nervous system, as it does upon every 
thing else in mortal life to which it may be applied, 
and confirms the old proverb, that habit becomes a 
second nature. The voluntary and involuntary powers 
have a strong tendency to concur together in one com- 
mon mode of action through indulgence, sympathy, and 
habit. This I have clearly shown in the case of the 
stuttering boy, the fingers of the performer on the keys 
of the piano, and those who got the jerks in the field 
of excitement. 

There are other persons, however, who are only par- 
tially in the electro-psychological state, who can be- 
come only partial mediums, according to the degree 
and perfection of their nervous impressibility. And 
there may be some on whom no visible psychological 
impression can be made, and yet by long practice, un- 
wearied patience, and perseverance, they may become 
writing mediums, and such as move tables and other 
furniture by contact. All other professed mediums, 
who are not in the peculiar psychological condition 
and nervous impressibility I have mentioned, are im- 
postors and arrant pretenders in every sense of the 
word. They intentionally, and by their voluntary 
powers, write, move furniture, tip tables, and produce 
the raps by deception and trick, and of these there are 
not a few. 

As even the honest medium is deceived by his own 



LECTURE V. 77 

impressions, so I would in the next place remark, in 
relation to the doctrine of impressions, that there is 
one in about twenty-five or thirty who is capable of 
becoming a good medium, because there is about that 
number who are naturally in the electro-psychological 
state. Upon the minds and bodies of such individuals 
any impression whatever can be made. 

For the information of such as may not be ac- 
quainted with the fact, I would say, that all the senses, 
their sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell, are sus- 
ceptible of the most astonishing hallucinations, and 
far superior to any of the spirit-manifestations. They 
can be made not only to hear raps, but to see a choir 
of angels, and hear them sing, while they strike their 
harps of gold in living melody. To their vision a 
handkerchief can be changed into a beautiful child — 
then to a bird of paradise — then into a lizard or any 
thing else. They can be impressed to see the clear 
starry heavens through the ceiling and roof of this 
hall ! The next instant, they can be impressed to see 
convolving clouds rolling the heavens in night — they 
see the lightnings flashing — hear the thunders rolling, 
and feel the rain and hail descending ! They can be 
made to feel the opposite extremes of sultry heat and 
piercing cold. They may taste pure water, and, by 
an impression on the mind, it can be instantly changed 
to the taste of vinegar — of wormwood, of honey — 
salts — brandy — lemonade — cider or coffee ! The scent 



78 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

of the sweetest rose can be changed to that of the 
most nauseous drug that ever came in contact with the 
sense of smell, or to the pleasant odor of the straw- 
berry, the orange, or to the horrible one of the skunk ! 
They can be made to see a table, or stand, or even a 
sofa, not only tip and move about the floor, but rise to 
the ceiling and sail around overhead, and then gently 
descend to the spot where it stood. They can be im- 
pressed even to believe that they are some other in- 
dividual, either male or female, or some renowned 
statesman, general, king, or even queen, or a beggar, 
or a person of color, or an ox, or a horse ! Not only 
can the above impressions be made in rapid and instant 
succession on the mind, but their arms, limbs, and 
bodies can be instantly paratyzed, so that they can not 
stir from any position in which they may be placed. 
And in this rigid condition of their arms, they can be 
made to gently tip a table without knowing that they 
bore down upon it in the slightest manner whatever. 
Or their limbs can be set in motion, so that they can 
not stop them. They can be made to dance, to rap 
the foot upon the floor, or to snap the joints and toes 
where this rare faculty exists, or to produce an electro- 
magnetic snap without being sensible of a single mo- 
tion, because all feeling can be removed from any part 
of the body, and again be instantly returned. Or they 
can be made to see and know that they are making 
such motions and noises, and yet all knowledge of the 



LECTURE V. 79 

fact can be instantly obliterated from their remem- 
brance. All these things, and thousands more, can be 
performed upon persons in the electro-psychological 
state, and that, too, while they are wide awake and in 
full possession of their reasoning faculties. Some can 
be made even to read the thoughts and impressions of 
other minds, and by a brilliant clairvoyance to describe 
individuals, circumstances, and scenes at any distance. 
AH this can be done in accordance with the soundest 
principles of physiology, and the philosophy of im- 
pressions. The spirit-manifestations of the present 
day are all performed on the same principle, with but 
little variation, that I have here laid down and briefly 
stated. This I shall soon decidedly notice. 

Once more. You ask, for instance, a psychological 
subject to move his hands, and he does so by his vol- 
untary power. You suddenly exclaim — You can not 
stop them ! and, sure enough, he can not. By this im- 
pression you merely cause him to paralyze the volun- 
tary power of his mind, so that it can not act through 
the voluntary nerves to stop the arm, while the invol- 
untary power of his mind is left free to continue this 
motion by sympathy through the involuntary nerves. 
It seems that all impressions, received from the exter- 
nal world through the senses, must first pass through 
the regions of involuntary powers before they can 
reach the voluntary powers of the mind. And by an 
impression you stop them in the involuntary depart- 



80 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ment, and thus prevent the voluntary powers from 
acting. 

It may perhaps be asked, what evidence is there 
that the involuntary powers of the mind can move 
either the hands or the feet without even will or 
thought ? I reply that there is abundant proof in the 
many instances already furnished. I will, however, 
bring one more. In a fit, for example, when the vol- 
untary powers of the mind through the nervous force 
are paralyzed and utterly senseless — when even the 
will can not act so as to produce the least motion in 
the body through the nerves, why is it that the hands, 
limbs, and indeed the whole body, are convulsively 
moved, and often with a force equal to the strength of 
two, or even three men % What is it that causes 
these motions 1 Surely not the voluntary powers, for 
they are senseless ; and there is no will to act. Nor 
can it be the body, for that has no power to struggle 
without the spirit. "What, then, is the philosophy of 
a struggle q . The cause is this, and has been over- 
looked by physiologists — The fit not only paralyzed the 
voluntary powers of the mind and body, but, at the 
same time, it trespassed so far upon the involuntary 
department as to suspend, for a moment, the heaving 
of the lungs and the throbbing of the heart. The 
convulsion that ensued was occasioned by the involun- 
tary powers of the mind instinctively exerting their 
energies to force the heart and lungs, on which life 



LECTURE V. 81 

immediately depends, to start into motion and resume 
their functions. In this case we see that the involun- 
tary powers of the mind can move the hands and feet 
without the will, and by their energy force the lungs 
and heart to move. So the question is not only an- 
swered, but unequivocally settled. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I now say, that all the so- 
called spirit-manifestations are produced by the invol- 
untary powers of the human mind through the nervous 
force of those persons only who are either in the elec- 
tro-psychological state, or in the mesm,eric state, or 
in an entire or partially cataleptic state — these three. 
All my arguments center here, and hinge on the invol- 
untary powers of the mind. These three conditions, 
it is to be understood, involve not only somnambulism 
and trance, but every abnormal condition to which 
human beings may be subject. 

In describing the various impressions and experi- 
ments in electrical psychology, I spoke of the rapping 
of the foot upon the floor, and the subject not knowing 
it. I do not mean to use this as a mode by which to 
account for, or explain, the raps of true mediums. 
They perform them electro-magnetically from their in- 
voluntary nervous force, while the false medium only 
makes them intentionally with the feet, the joints, or 
hands. 

Let us now fairly try the question by meeting the 
mediums and the believers in the spirit-manifestations 

4* 



82 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

on their own ground. It is stated, with a great deal 
of confidence, that intelligence is connected with these 
rappings and table-tippings, and that the most myste- 
rious facts and circumstances, far distant, and that 
transpired years ago, unknown to the medium and to 
all present, have been communicated. This is grant- 
ed ; but I reply, that facts and circumstances equally 
mysterious have been communicated by mesmeric clair- 
voyance — by electro-psychological impressions, and by 
catalepsy. And you will please to bear constantly in 
mind, that the natural cause is to be received and 
adopted in preference to the supernatural. But to 
proceed. It is often requested that some skeptic pres- 
ent at the meeting of a circle shall state mentally 
how many times he desires the table to tip. He con- 
sents, and says mentally four times — I will now sup- 
pose no failures to occur — and, sure enough, the table 
tips four times ! He again merely thinks > and pro- 
poses thirteen ; and it tips thirteen times ! All are 
awe-struck at the mysterious nature of that invisible 
spirit that reads the thoughts ! But do you not un- 
derstand, that mesmeric clairvoyants have done this in 
thousands and thousands of instances, and so often re- 
peated, that the experiment has become stale 1 But 
do you object, and contend that the medium is not in 
the mesmeric state ? How do you know this 1 What 
immortal spirit has revealed it to you, and not to us 1 
You will please, however, to bear in mind that a per- 



LECTURE V. 83 

son often passes into the mesmeric state instantly, and 
just as suddenly passes out of it, without being con- 
scious in himself of any transition from one state to the 
other. But do you say, that no one magnetized the 
medium — that his eyes are open, and that he has no 
appearance of being in the mesmeric state 1 But this 
is no objection whatever, for who does not know the 
fact of self-mesmerism ; that the subject can throw 
himself into and out of the state at will ? Or who 
does not know the fact, that the subject is often invol- 
untarily thrown into and out of the state by surround- 
ing impressions and circumstances, and without even 
knowing it 1 But do you say, that the medium is not 
in communication with any person in the room, and 
yet that names are rapped out through the a-b-c pro- 
cess — that deaths and circumstances are made known 
of which the medium never heard, of which every per- 
son at the circle is entirely ignorant, and that with 
none of these the medium is in communication 1 But 
what does this objection amount to in favor of spirit- 
ual intercourse ? Nothing ! for who does not know, 
that a person who involuntarily falls into the mes- 
meric state, is in communication with surrounding na- 
ture, and with all persons of a certain nervous tem- 
perament in sympathy with his own, even though 
thousands of miles distant, and, for aught we know, 
throughout the globe — and -receives impressions from 
their brains, and details circumstances of deaths and 



84 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

events that transpired years ago 1 Who does not 
know, that mesmeric clairvoyance and its sympathetic 
impressions involve all this ? Who does not know, 
that somnambulism is but involuntary self-mesmerism ? 
And who does not know, that the somnambulist is in 
communication with nature — with surrounding circum- 
stances, and can feel and read by impress the thoughts 
of those whose nervous sympathies are congenial with 
his own 1 All this I have tested in hundreds of cases 
for the last fifteen years. And he who cites or pub- 
lishes such instances as these, as proof of spirit-man- 
ifestations, betrays his utter ignorance of well-attested 
mesmeric phenomena. 

But could it be clearly shown that the medium is not 
in the mesmeric state, this would not in the least remove 
the difficulty. He must then be in the electro-psycho- 
logical state, and this can not positively be distin- 
guished from his natural state under the present im- 
pressions of the medium's mind. And who does not 
know that electro-psychology is the doctrine of impres- 
sions, and that around it cluster all the phenomena, 
and even more than mesmerism can boast? A good 
psychological subject can grasp the most wonderful 
and apparently hidden events and buried transactions, 
call them up from their graves, and clothe them to his 
fancy in their resurrection splendor, just as they ap- 
peared when they transpired. Like a good mesmeric 
clairvoyant, so a brilliant psychological subject can 



LECTURE V. 85 

range the universe — read the bare bosom — read human 
thoughts, and scan the arcana of the soul. If you say- 
that mesmeric and psychological subjects often fail in 
correctness ; I reply, so do your mediums fail in cor- 
rectness, as to the spirit-communications, and fail full 
as often. They both stand upon the same ground, 
bow at the same shrine of enchantment, consult the 
same oracle, and are the same thing. But "when the 
medium's experiments fail, he has a spirit scape-goat 
on which to lay his sins, for he attributes the failure 
to ignorant, lying, or mischievous spirits ! But when 
the unfortunate clairvoyant fails, we merely say, he is 
a poor subject. Hence, as there are good and poor 
clairvoyants, so there are good and poor mediums. 
This each medium should candidly confess, and not 
charge his own ignorance, stupidity, or failures upon 
the spirits. 

If you say, that the medium is not in the electro- 
psychological state, because there is no person to 
speak to, and impress him — and that no person can 
impress him, for many have tried it, and failed ; I 
reply, that this objection is utterly futile. It is by no 
means necessary that another person should speak to, 
and control him. Any absorbing thought or supreme 
impression, or any thing to which he may discipline his 
mind, or that may happen to enter his brain, can con- 
trol him, whether it may be his full conviction of the 
power of some invisible spirit — an angel, a fly, or a 



86 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

worm ! In whatever he may be induced to place con- 
fidence, and believes or expects that he shall receive 
from it an impression upon his mind or body, and sits 
passively in expectation of such a result, this becomes 
to him the controlling power. And while this impres- 
sion remains the supreme one, so long no other impres- 
sion from any human being on earth can remove it so 
as to control him. Hence you perceive that this is no 
proof whatever, that he is not in the electro-psycholog- 
ical state merely because no person can control him. 
And yet there are individuals whom I have often 
psychologically controlled, who have since become 
mediums. Each will tell me, as we may chance to 
meet, " Well, you say it is not spirits, but psychology ; 
now operate upon me, if you can. I should like to see 
you psychologize me !" And so says the mesmeric 
clairvoyant who has become a medium, and who had 
been mesmerized a hundred times : " Well, I should 
like to see you mesmerize me now ! My father's spirit 
is my mesmerizer, and he speaks from my mouth, com- 
municates to others, and through mc makes other me- 
diums." All this shows their utter ignorance of the 
doctrine of impressions ; and while in this condition 
no argument can reach their understanding, and no 
man can psychologize or mesmerize them. 

It is asked, how is the table tipped or moved, if not 
by spirits 1 Answer : It is done in one of two ways, 
if done honestly. The first is by the medium's own 



LECTURE V. 87 

physical force, exerted through the involuntary nerves 
from the back brain, and without the medium's knowl- 
edge. By placing her hands tightly upon the table, 
and keeping the voluntary powers of her mind entirely 
passive, as regards the motion of her hands, keeping 
her mind calmly and steadily fixed upon the expected 
result, then the involuntary powers of her mind residing 
in the back brain send out their electro-magnetic force, 
gradually and imperceptibly stiffen and convulse the 
arms, and bear them down with a force sufficient to 
tip or move it. This is done without her knowledge, 
because her hands and arms, being at that instant 
cataleptic, have no more feeling than in a fit. But on 
being asked if she is not tipping it, the moment she 
turns her attention to examine the state of her hands, 
her voluntary powers, quick as lightning, quick as 
thought, equalize the forces between the two brains, 
the rigidity is gone and the feeling returns, and she 
answers, No ! I am not tipping it. This is the most 
common mode of tipping and moving tables when one 
or two mediums are seated alone. 

The second way in which it is done, is by electro- 
magnetically charging the table from a living battery 
of many human hands, and then attracting or repelling 
it without contact, or raising it as high as their heads 
by a concentration of their minds upon the object, and 
the slightest touch from the entire circle. This is by 
far the most mysterious, yet the noblest and most in- 



88 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

teresting mode, and can not but strike the mind with 
astonishment and delight. Though far more difficult 
than the rising of a balloon, because the table is more 
solid, yet it is equally simple. The millions of pores 
in the table are filled with electro-magnetism from 
human brains, which is inconceivably lighter than the 
gas that inflates the balloon. And as it possesses also 
the power of attraction and repulsion in itself, the 
table will follow the human hands and brains from 
whence it was charged, and with the slightest united 
effort from the fingers of the surrounding circle, it can 
be raised as high as their heads, but no higher. And 
what, I ask, is better calculated to produce a united 
effort of minds and bodies to act in unison than to say, 
"Will the spirits raise the table? will they tip it? 
will they move it from the medium 1 will they move it 
toward the medium V y 

Objections against this exposition will weigh nothing 
against its truthfulness sustained by experiment. Take, 
for instance, a man weighing 150 pounds, and lay him 
upon his back on a counter or long table. Let two 
men of great vital force stand, one either side of him. 
Let each place the forefingers under the shoulder-blade 
and loins on each side, and keep a steady lift of 50 
pounds in all on the body. Let all three take in a 
long inspiration at the same instant, and for a moment 
hold the breath, and then all expire together. Let 
them continue for a short time thus to draw in and 



LECTURE V. 89 

expel their breath at the same instant, and the man 
will, at length, rise above the table, as high as their 
heads, without increasing the original effort of 50 pounds' 
lift. Here we perceive that an unusual inflation of 
air into the lungs, and forcing the electricity contained 
in that air into the blood and nerves till the whole sys- 
tem of the prostrate man, on whom they were acting, 
was charged, overcame the gravity of 100 pounds. In 
fact he rose on the same principle that a balloon rises. 
It requires no disembodied spirits to do this. But no 
man ever rose to the ceiling, as some have stated, 
without being in contact with human hands. 

It may now be said that this experiment is upon 
man, and not upon dead matter, and hence affords no 
proof that a table can be raised, or moved, or tipped, 
by being charged with electric force from men. In 
reply, I would first remark that this objection amounts 
to nothing in the face of experiment and fact. Let us 
notice dead matter. Take, for instance, a silk um- 
brella, closed and perfectly dry ; rub it briskly for a 
minute or so downward with the hands — stand its 
handle upon the floor — balance it between the palms 
of the two hands, touching it near the top of the silk, 
and then remove the hands evenly and gently for two 
or three inches away from it on each side. You may 
then move the hands backward and forward, and 
the umbrella will follow them two or three inches out 
of its perpendicular, and again follow them back to its 



90 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

upright position. All this can be done, without contact. 
This settles the question, by proving that the mind, 
through electrical agency sent from the brain through 
the arms and hands, can charge dead matter, and influ- 
ence it. If this be not so, how then could the Deity 
electrically and magnetically charge this globe, and 
move it by the same attracting and repelling forces 1 
He could not. If man can not electrically charge and 
influence a table, how then can departed spirits whom 
you consult do it ? for it is contended that they do it 
through an electrical agent. 

Though I am perfectly aware that there are mediums 
and other persons who have become so electrically 
charged through passivity as to be capable of giving 
off electro-magnetic discharges sufficient to be heard at 
considerable distances, and in certain rare cases to 
move light substances alone, with little or no contact ; 
and though I conceive it possible for about one in fifty 
million, like the Seeress of Prevorst, to produce electro- 
magnetic sounds in other dwellings while in the mes- 
meric state, and for which she claimed no assistance 
from departed spirits — though I admit all this, yet I 
now seriously and decidedly challenge any medium in 
the United States to raise the lightest stand from the 
floor to the ceiling without contact, or to sit down alone 
and place his hands upon the end of a table, that has 
its four legs at the corners, and make it tip from him. 
I believe that persons have seen apparently a table rise 



LECTURE V. 91 

from the floor to the ceiling, but they were in the electro- 
psychological state, and I have produced that impression 
upon hundreds, yet the table never stirred from the 
spot where it stood ! 

Again, there are mediums who profess to be magnet- 
ized by some spirit, and then firmly believe that the 
spirit makes use of their organs, and through them 
converses with any at the circle to whom the spirit may 
direct the medium's hand. And the medium will often 
successfully imitate the voice and manner that were the 
spirit's while in the earthly body. But who does not 
know that persons can mesmerize themselves by a 
mental abstraction or involuntary fall into the mesmeric 
state by any impression? And who does not know that 
you can make a person in the mesmeric or psychological 
state believe that they are some other individual, and 
will then endeavor to speak and act like that individual, 
whether he be yet lingering on earth or departed to 
another world 1 All such stale questions are continually 
asked by the believers in the spirit-manifestations 
wherever I go, as though they were unanswerably great, 
when, in fact, they do not scarcely involve the a b c of 
mesmeric and psychological phenomena. 

It is earnestly contended that the medium does not 
rap, tip tables, nor move furniture, but that it is done 
by invisible spirits. Now, this is not only an incon- 
sistency, but a blank contradiction to what they uni- 
formly admit about all the other spirit-manifestations. 



92 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

Let us notice a few instances as examples of what we 
mean : Does not the spirit use the medium's organs to 
speak with 1 Yes, they all say so. Does not the spirit 
use the medium's hand and pen to write with ? Yes, 
they all grant this to be true. I then ask, Does not the 
spirit electro-magnetically use the medium's fingers, 
toes, joints, or whole body to rap, and to move and tip 
tables with 1 Certainly ; for this must follow suit, and 
be consistent with all the other manifestations. There 
must be no contradiction, but entire harmony in the 
whole matter. But as it is positively denied that the 
medium makes the raps or tips the tables, in what 
sense then is he a medium ? Can this question be an- 
swered ? No ! His hand certainly does the writing, 
and his lungs, voice, and organs of articulation certainly 
do the talking. Then do not his hands and feet, electro- 
magnetically or otherwise, do the rapping and table- 
tipping business also? This being admitted, where, 
then, are your spirit-manifestations 1 But if you say, 
that the medium does not do this, but that- spirits do 
it, in what sense then is he a medium in rapping, tip- 
ping, and moving tfurnituru, more than any other person 
in the room ? And how are these glaring contradictions 
to be reconciled in spirit-harmony, that the mediums 
do the writing and talking business, and the spirits do 
the rapping, tipping, and flin gin g- about-fur niture- 
business? The moment the medium admits that the 
raps are made through any part of his body, as they 



LECTURE V. 



93 



certainly are, then we must bid adieu to the idea that 
spirits have any concern in the matter. For how can 
he know it to be spirits, if the sounds come from his 
hands and feet 1 How could he prove it to be spirits, 
if his own hands tipped the table, or moved the furni- 
ture, by first charging it with his hands ? Is it, I ask, 
in the power of mediums to induce spirits to move a 
table without first charging it electro-magnetically by 
contact with their hands 1 No, it is not. Let mediums 
step into a room, and not touch the table at all, and 
then cause it to be tipped, raised, or moved, and their 
work is done. For one, I am a convert, and will un- 
flinchingly face a sneering and scoffing world. But if 
the table is tipped or moved through the influence of 
the medium's own hands, how then can he prove it to 
be done by spirits ? In this case it requires but little 
sagacity to perceive that there are no spirit-manifesta- 
tions. But in case they are not made through him, in 
what sense, then, is he a medium ? Of this dilemma 
they may take either horn, and also reconcile these 
strongly apparent contradictions. We perceive, then, 
that the spirit-manifestations will not bear the test of 
scrutiny — they crumble at the touch of reality. 

But it is said, that they are not only proved true by 
experiment and fact, but that the Scriptures fully 
sanction the idea, that spirits have in all ages ap- 
peared to, and held converse with, men. But why, 
and for what end did they appear 1 The answer is, 



94 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

they appeared for the purpose of making a revelation 
of the mind and will of the Creator of the universe for 
the benefit of all mankind, and not for individual pur- 
poses and selfish or silly ends. Nor is there a single 
instance where they manifested themselves through 
mediums, and employed raps to make themselves or 
their message known by an a-b-c process. In Scrip- 
ture times, instead of manifesting their presence by 
tipping tables, flinging about and destroying furniture, 
or by throwing stones and breaking window-glass, they 
uniformly made their appearance to men in dignified 
and visible splendor ! And instead of calling for the 
alphabet and rapping out their messages, they deliv- 
ered them in an audible manner, and with the living 
voice. And have spirits lost their power, become 
deaf and dumb, and are they compelled to resort to 
various signs of rappings and table-tippings to make 
themselves understood 1 No ! this can not be. Heaven 
stoops, but not to meanness. And, moreover, the 
revelation of God is finished by the living Son, the 
most exalted and dignified personage from the Supreme 
Court above. 

To finish the revelation of Jesus Christ, they mani- 
fested a spirit-grandeur and power beyond that of 
electro-toe-rapping and table-tipping ! a grandeur and 
power worthy the Eternal, and that a seraph's elo- 
quence never, never can describe ! The darkened sky 
at the midnight hour broke, and gave the light of day ! 



LECTURE V. 95 

the light of eternity ! An angel from heaven ap- 
peared, robed in his immortal costume — delivered his 
message to shepherds on the plains of Judea announc- 
ing the birth of Christ ! To stamp with interest, and 
enhance the splendor of the scene, a multitude of the 
heavenly host appear, and are seen moving along the 
front of night ! Not only are they seen, but heard in 
that song of songs, " Glory to God in the highest, on 
earth peace, good will toward men." Hark ! They 
are gone, but employed no mediums to rap ! 

Mount Tabor is rendered immortal by the transfig- 
uration of Christ. Moses and Elias appeared in 
glory ; and the Master, too, was changed ! His face 
did shine as the sun, and his raiment became shining, 
exceeding white, as snow, as no fuller on earth can 
white them. They appeared not only visible to the 
eye, but spake audibly to the ear, delivered their mes- 
sage, and closed the scene without employing mediums 
to rap ! Yes, the apostles present saw and heard. 

The crucifixion hour was at hand. Christ in agony 
sweat drops of blood ! An angel from heaven appears 
in the garden and strengthens him. From that mo- 
ment the name of Gethsemane is immortal ! He is 
ready for the approaching scene of his sufferings. He 
bangs on the cross, and around it the great heart of 
nature throbs wildly ! Earthquakes thunder, rocks 
end, and the sun is in night ! He dies amid the con- 
vulsions of nature, and dismisses his spirit ! He is 



96 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

laid in the silent tomb ! The vengeance of a world is 
roused, and Roman soldiers are standing around his 
sepulcher as if determined to hold the Master in 
death. But on the third-day morning the angel of 
God descends from heaven ! An earthquake awakes 
and sounds its thunders, announcing his approach ! 
The scene how grand ! He rolls back the stone from 
the door of the sepulcher ! He sits upon it. His 
countenance is like lightning, and his raiment white as 
snow ! For fear of him the keepers shake and become 
as dead men ! And the angel said to the women, Fear 
not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus that was cruci- 
fied. All was not only visible to his friends and ene- 
mies, but they also heard his voice. The Roman 
guard was smitten down, and the whole majestic scene 
was opened without forming a circle, and sublimely 
closed without employing mediums to rap. 



LECTURE VI. 



97 



LECTURE VI. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I am sensible that many of the ministers of the gos- 
pel feel and deeply realize the dangers that are thick- 
ened around their dearest religious interests, but do not 
know what to do to avert the gathering storm. Some 
of them having witnessed the manifestations through 
mediums belonging perhaps to their own church, and 
whose honor and sincerity they could not question, 
have remained silent in their own astonishment at the 
mystery that hangs over the subject. And though 
they were by no means satisfied of its truth, yet cir- 
cumstances of a personal and local nature prevented 
their making any opposition whatever. 

Others, having witnessed experiments through medi- 
ums who were strangers, or those in whom they had 
no confidence, have raised their voices against it, not 
only in private conversation, but in their pulpits have 
pronounced it an arrant humbug, and utterly unworthy 
the consideration of the Christian or any sober-minded 
man. And other clergymen have considered it be- 
neath their notice — have refused to witness a single 
experiment — and believing it to be sustained, and en- 
tirely so, by trickery and fraud, have treated the 

5 



98 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

whole matter with silent contempt, and advised others 
to do the same. I regret to say, that these various 
modes of procedure have done any thing but to arrest 
its progress. They have, on the contrary, had an in- 
direct tendency to urge it on, and by such opposition 
to give it permanency and support. 

The thing itself is not a falsehood, but exists con- 
centered in our nature, and founded on immutable 
truth. When the whole subject is philosophically 
considered and scientifically understood, it is then per- 
ceived that the departed spirits of another world have 
no agency in this matter, and hence have never been 
called from their dread abode to produce raps through 
the flesh and bones of mediums, nor to spasmodically 
move the writing medium's hand to furnish communi- 
cations for the living. The mediums, notwithstanding 
this, are honest and sincere through whom these com- 
munications are made. I would not be understood to 
say that they are all honest. It would be strange, in- 
deed, were this the case. Every bank has its coun- 
terfeit bills, and a counterfeit presupposes a true. 
Among the twelve disciples of the Master there was a 
Judas, and in Christian churches of all denominations 
there ever have been, and still are, hypocrites. And 
it would be strange, indeed, if there were no false me- 
diums among the spirit-rappers and spirit-writers. It 
would be an exception, never before witnessed on earth 
among any societies or combinations of men. I desire 



LECTURE VI. 99 

it, therefore, to be distinctly understood, that there are 
false as well as true mediums in their circles. And 
what renders the subject a matter of more grave and 
serious interest is the circumstance, that its mediums 
and its advocates, as a body, are sincere. Indeed, 
they appear anxious to have the subject thoroughly in- 
vestigated, so that they may know to what cause to 
ascribe it, if it be not to the agency of spirits. They 
have no wish, I presume, to impose upon and 
deceive their fellow-men any more than they have 
to impose upon and deceive themselves. All are 
alike anxious, and it only needs the light of truth, 
reason, and philosophy to be freely shed upon this 
subject around which hangs so much mystery and 
darkness. On this account I have spoken thus far 
plainly and freely, and endeavored to meet your ex- 
pectations. 

It is a matter of regret, that notwithstanding the 
long and patient investigations of various committees 
publicly appointed for this purpose, as well as the 
private investigations of hundreds of individuals, 
through successive years, that they have resulted in 
nothing satisfactory to a rational solution of the sub- 
ject. They have left it where they found it, resting 
in its own incomprehensibility, and pronounced it in- 
scrutable to the human mind. The reason of their 
arriving at such a result as this, is because these in- 
vestigating committees and individuals have generally 



100 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

directed their efforts to detect imposture and trick, 
with a certainty of success, and when satisfied there 
was none, they have at once concluded that it must be 
attributed to the agency of departed spirits in another 
world. But however satisfactory results proved to 
themselves, yet they have uniformly failed to report 
any discovery they had made satisfactory to the public 
mind, that invisible intelligences had any agency in 
producing these most singular manifestations. This 
state of things, and the mystery and darkness that 
hover around, and brood with more than raven wing 
over this subject, concealing it from human scrutiny, 
have had a tendency, for several years past, to excite 
the community, and this excitement, so far from abat- 
ing, is gradually increasing and extending itself over 
; the United States and Europe with most tremendous 
force. 

Much stress is laid upon the fact, that as the medi- 
um's hand moves without his will and writes intelli- 
gently, so it is moved by a spirit ! Involuntary motion 
I have dwelt upon extensively, and shown that the in- 
tuitions or instincts of man belong to the involuntary 
powers of his mind. All mesmeric clairvoyance, and 
all that this clairvoyance has ever indited, revealed, or 
written, is but an effort and result of the involuntary 
powers of the mind. If, however, you say that man 
has no such involuntary power of instinct or intuition 
to discover, then where do departed spirits get the 



LECTURE VI. 101 

faculty to know when and what you think — to know 
when you call for them — and to respond to you when- 
ever you desire them to communicate ? Where, I ask, 
do they get the faculty to scrutinize all the secret 
thoughts and buried transactions of the human heart, 
and rap them out and reveal them through mediums 1 
Surely this faculty must have existed inborn, and they 
must have possessed it ingermed in their being while 
here on earth, or they could never have attained it in a 
future state of existence except by a new creation. If 
spirits possess such powers of intuition or instinct, only 
more fully developed by passing through death into the 
spirit-world, then mortals possess the same, and when in 
the mesmeric or psychological state, or in clairvoyant 
catalepsy — a condition so nigh approaching that of the 
dead — they give evident manifestations both of its ex- 
istence and power, for in any of these abnormal con- 
ditions they perceive, understand, and explain things 
of which their reason, while in their natural state, 
knows nothing. 

But, it is asked, what evidence is there that man 
has such intuition or instinct belonging to the involun- 
tary power of the mind in the back brain 1 I reply, 
that the evidence in proof of this position has been al- 
ready given in my former Lectures. But that this new 
and interesting point in the philosophy of mind may 
be placed beyond the reach of all cavil, I will call to 
my aid some of the following well-known class of phe- 



102 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

nomena. Ask a mesmerized person if he will go to 
bed in the mesmeric state and wake up at precisely 
five o'clock in the morning, or at any other hour you 
may be pleased to name, and if he firmly promises to 
do so, he will awake at the appointed hour, however 
profound may be his natural sleep. What is it, I 
ask, that takes note of time while the inhabitant in 
the front brain sleeps, and all its voluntary powers of 
calculation, reason, thought, and understanding are 
gone 1 What is it that keeps a reckoning of time, and 
wakes him up at the right moment 1 It is a power 
that lies beyond the realms of consciousness — it is in- 
tuition, or instinct. Or, if you please, after making 
him promise while mesmerized that he will wake up at 
five o'clock in the morning, then take him out of the 
mesmeric state and let him retire at pleasure. He 
now knows nothing of his promise so far as the volun- 
tary powers of his reasoning faculties are concerned. 
But in the morning at five o'clock he awakes. I again 
ask, what awoke him at the specified hour ? Surely 
it could not have been the voluntary power of his 
mind in the front brain that awoke him by the exer- 
cise of its thought or reason, because this knew noth- 
ing about the appointed hour, nor any of the circum- 
stances connected with the promise. And even if it 
had, still it could not have told the minute without a 
timepiece. I again ask, what was it that knew unerr- 
ingly when the hour came, without the assistance of a 



LECTURE VI, 103 

timepiece, and at that instant aroused the voluntary 
power of the mind from slumber and insensibility to 
wakefulness and thought 1 I reply, it was the in- 
stincts, the intuition of the involuntary powers of his 
mind, that held their throne beyond the dominions of 
consciousness. 

Once more. Ask a lady in the mesmeric state 
whether she will come to your house the next morning 
at precisely ten o'clock, hand you a glass of water, 
and, while you are drinking it, whether she will kneel 
down on the left knee, and kiss your child in its moth- 
er's arms 1 She firmly promises to do so. Now wake 
her up, and though her reason and understanding have 
not the least knowledge or remembrance of this mat- 
ter, yet on the morrow, when the hour is approaching, 
a presentiment will take possession of her mind where 
she must go, and what she must do, and for which she 
can assign no possible reason. And so great will be 
the impression as to compel her to proceed to your 
house at the appointed hour, and do every thing just 
as it was promised. This proof is sufficient to settle 
the question in all its points. Now convince me that 

THE SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS ARE TRUE, AND MY PHI- 
LOSOPHY IS STILL CORRECT. In SUCH A CASE IT WOULD 
ONLY BE NECESSARY FOR ME TO MOVE MY POSITION ONE 
STEP FARTHER BACK, AND SAY THAT DEPARTED SPIRITS 
INFLUENCED THE INVOLUNTARY POWERS OF THE MIND 
IN THE BACK BRAIN, AND MOVED INTO ACTION THE IN- 



104 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

STINCTIVE ENERGIES OF OUR BEING. It Will be per- 

ceived, that in the exposition now given, double con- 
sciousness and presentiments are explained on perfectly 
rational and philosophical principles. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have already remarked 
that the involuntary powers of the mind never reason, 
nor exercise any will, but they know, because they 
contain all the instinctive energies of our being. All 
intuitive knowledge of truth is there in embryo, and 
there conscience holds her throne. Through the do- 
minions of the involuntary powers all impressions are 
compelled to pass on their journey to the fields of vo- 
lition and reason, to be there manufactured into ideas, 
and they can enter there by no other road. These im- 
pressions are received from the external world through 
sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell, which all be- 
long, as- before shown, to the involuntary powers of the 
mind residing in the back brain. On these involuntary 
powers presentiments are often impressed, and through 
these the Creator has held, in the early ages of the 
world, mysterious converse with holy men, and through 
these he has poured the streams of prophetic truth 
and divine inspiration from the fountain of his being, 
and through these he has reached the reason, thought, 
understanding, and vnll of his creatures. Hence the 
involuntary powers of man are the very basis of his 
intellectual existence, and the mysterious fountain 
from whence all his reason "and intelligence proceed. 



LECTURE VI. 105 

In proof of this, let the involuntary powers only par- 
tially suspend their operations, as, for instance, in the 
case of fainting, and all the voluntary powers of rea- 
son, thought, and intelligence are instantly suspended. 
This proves that they are dependent on the harmoni- 
ous movement of the involuntary powers for their very 
existence — and proves that the immortal mind pos- 
sesses these two attributes of voluntary and involun- 
tary power. 

From whence, I ask, originated all our knowledge of 
the arts and various improvements in human society ? 
From whence, for instance, did man in the early ages 
of our race first obtain the idea of building a house — 
of weaving and manufacturing fabrics, or even of the 
medical properties of plants 1 The consideration is a 
humiliating one, I confess, but it is none the less true, 
that he received the first idea from the instincts of the 
lower creatures. And these instincts, I have clearly 
shown, belong to the involuntary powers of the whole 
living chain. In proof of this, we know that the med- 
ical properties of many plants were discovered by 
watching the instinct of creatures. History proves 
that they gave us the idea. Building was suggested 
to man. by the bee, the beaver, the bird, and other 
creatures — weaving by the spider, the worm, and even 
the idea of the forms of government was taken from 
the ant or the bee. Virgil, in his " Bucolicks," exten- 
sively sings this truth — and Pope, the English bard, 
5* 



106 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

only breathes the language of nature, of man's early 
history and of experience, when he says : 

«'* See man from nature rising slow to art ! 
To copy instinct, then, was nature's part. 
Thus, then, to man the voice of nature spake : 
' Go, from the creatures thy instructions take. 
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield, 
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field ; 
Thy arts of building from the bee receive, 
Learn of the mole to plow — the worm to weave, 
Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the rising gale ; 
Here subterranean works and cities see ! 
There towns aerial on the waving tree ! 
Learn each small people's genius, policies, 
The ant's republic, and the realm of bees, 
How those in common all their wealth bestow, 
And anarchy without confusion know ; 
And these forever, though a monarch reign, 
Their separate cells and properties maintain. 
Mark what unvaried laws attend each state ! 
Laws wise as nature and as fixed as fate ! 
Yet go, and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 
Thus let the wiser make the rest obey, 
And for those arts mere instinct could afford, 
Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored.' " 

The above quotation is quite sufficient for my pur- 
pose. These instinctive energies belonging to our in- 
voluntary powers of mind can move the hand of the 
medium to write, and to rationally and instinctively 



LECTURE VI. 107 

express the impressions of the involuntary powers, be- 
fore they reach the fields of volition and reason. In- 
deed, they are not allowed to enter the dominions of 
the involuntary powers. They are, if I may so speak, 
arrested upon their journey, and detained in the in- 
voluntary dominions, and from thence are instinctively 
sent off through the involuntary nerves of the arm, and 
formed into words and sentences, and in such letters 
only as the medium by his voluntary powers learned 
at school. Remember that the finished performer upon 
the piano plays two parts of the tune perfectly with 
his fingers while he is holding a familiar conversation 
with his friend, without perhaps a voluntary thought 
what music his fingers are playing. And you will bear 
in mind, as before remarked, that there is as much ar- 
rangement and scientific intelligence displayed in the 
harmony of sounds as in the harmony of sentences. 
All somnambulists write, and, if I may so speak, reason 
and move by the involuntary powers of mind and nerves. 
And can you tell me how a timid female can step and 
move intelligently on the ridge-pole of a barn-frame, 
or on a narrow joist, thirty feet high, over a swift 
stream, where a misstep would prove fatal 1 How is 
this done without the aid of spirits, or of thought and 
reason from the voluntary power of her mind in the 
front brain % Wake up her thought and reason while 
in the act, and she would fall. Or in the wakeful 
state, and by the aid of all her voluntary powers of 



108 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

reason, she could not accomplish it. And is there not 
as much intelligence displayed in the movement of her 
feet, and without the aid of her voluntary reason, as 
there is in the movement of the writing medium's 
hand? There is. I say all somnambulists write, and, 
if I may so speak, reason and move by the involuntary 
power of mind and nerves. And so do all mesmeric 
clairvoyants, and those in a state of catalepsy. And 
yet they marvel and wonder that the hand writes when 
they do not will it ! I hope they will not wonder and 
perish ! 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I will only say that electro- 
psychology and mesmerism, as matters of science, should 
be kept in their own appropriate domain, to detect and 
describe disease, and apply the healing remedy; but 
let them not presume, through these agents, by sup- 
posed spirit-manifestations, clairvoyance, or any other 
mode, to make a revelation superior to the prophets, 
and Jesus Christ and his apostles. And deeply do I 
regret that Mr. Davis has mesmerically attempted this, 
by speaking disparagingly of those inspired men who 
have for more than four thousand years kindled up the 
fires cf moral truth for the peace and happiness of man- 
kind and the light of future generations. He has not 
done justice to the Bible, the prophets, nor to Jesus 
Christ and his inspired servants. The Holy Bible he 
calls " excellent soft bark," and Daniel's visions 
" beastly," and ranks the Scriptures on a par with all 



LECTURE VI. 109 

heathen Bibles. His evident intention was that his 
book, called " Nature's Divine Revelations" should, as 
a rule of life, supersede the use of the Holy Scriptures, 
and that he himself, as a moral reformer, should surpass 
the Son of Man. Read his 156th Lecture, and his mes- 
meric intention, as to the fate of the Bible and the in- 
structions of Christ, is clearly seen. And deeply do I 
regret that this } T oung man, in the very morning of his 
being, and whom I so highly esteem, has been so misled 
in his mesmeric and psychological career by the impres- 
sions or those with whom he was surrounded, and 
for which he is not to be blamed. Hence, and above all, 
let them not attribute the wonders that hang around 
the psychological and mesmeric states to the communi- 
cations of departed spirits who are about making a new 
and superior revelation to men. 

As this is an age of great improvement in art and 
science, and as some entirely new and startling discov- 
eries are continually being made as regards the opera- 
tions of both mind and matter, so it will be readily per- 
ceived, even by the most careless observer, that there is 
a desire felt, an expectation entertained and even cher- 
ished by many minds, that improvements, at least, will 
be made in divine revelation also, sufficient to convert 
the Atheist, and they loudly boast, that the spirit-man- 
ifestations have already accomplished this in many in- 
stances. In reply to this, I have only to say, " that if 
they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will 



110 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

they be persuaded though one arose from the dead." 
And some are so deluded and vain as to entertain an 
opinion, that the use of the Scriptures will be entirely- 
superseded by a higher and far nobler revelation, and 
one more perfectly adapted to the gradually expanding 
light and science of the day, than the old-fashioned one 
contained in the Bible, and which was " given through 
prophets, and the apostles of Christ, in the dark and 
uncultivated ages of the world !" Many have a deep- 
seated impression, that we as much require a gradual 
improvement to be made in divine revelation, even 
though given to the world by the living Son of the High- 
est, as we do in the arts and sciences, and that the one 
must necessarily keep pace with the other. Still more : 
there are those who believe, that as there has been no 
improvement or amendment on the Bible for the last 
eighteen hundred years, so we require an entirely new 
revelation adapted to the greater light and science of 
the day, that shall as completely supersede the use of 
the Bible, or throw it as far into the shade, as traveling 
by steam supersedes, or throws into the shade the old- 
fashioned mode of traveling by stage-coach ! Perhaps 
some are expecting a revelation from heaven by tele- 
graphic dispatch from Benjamin Franklin through rap- 
ping and writing mediums ! 

It appears that my friend, Mr. Davis, for whom I en- 
tertain a high opinion, has placed Franklin at the head 
of matters in eternity, as the inventor or first discoverer 



LECTURE VI. Ill 

of this new mode of communication from heaven to 
earth. And the only reason why all are not mediums, 
is because the wires of the spiritual telegraph are, as 
yet, established through only a few mediums as a mere 
experiment. But as the prophetic edict has been given 
out, through the medium-oracle, that soon we shall 
all hold familiar converse with the spirits of our de- 
parted friends, so we shall all become mediums by the 
spiritual telegraph being universally established. It is 
perhaps a providential circumstance, that Professor 
Morse is yet in this world, otherwise, the whole honor 
of the immortal electric telegraph from heaven to earth 
would have been attributed to his invention, instead of 
Benjamin Franklin's. This would have been too much 
honor in connection with his earthly discovery for any 
one man to bear ! Only think — a telegraph for two 
worlds ! 

We know there was a day when our grandmothers 
used the spinning-wheel and hand-loom, and when print- 
ing and the various mechanic arts were slowly executed 
by hand. But because these have been principally su- 
perseded by water and steam power, yet this is no rea- 
son that the good old-fashioned book, called the Bible, 
should be superseded by a new revelation given through 
the psychological and mesmeric dreams of deluded or 
designing men. Because a telegraphic dispatch on light- 
ning's wing immeasurably outstrips the swiftest stage- 
coach express of former days, or is even destined to su- 



112 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

persede its use, yet this is no reason that the mesmeric 
flights of men to other planets, or to future worlds, and 
all the chimerical revelations they can make, should 
supersede the Bible, which is admitted by the Christian 
world to contain the revelation of the mind and will of 
the Creator of the Universe. This even Emanuel 
Swedenborg never assumed to do. He did not presume 
to furnish a new revelation of truth to supersede the 
Bible. His veneration was too great for the Holy Book, 
to make such an attempt. He only undertook to show 
the internal and spiritual signification of the Bible, or 
how it should be explained and understood by mankind. 
I am not of his religious sentiment. Indeed, I have 
not read his works, except two pamphlets, and a brief 
sketch of his life. I must, however, confess, that he was 
a very extraordinary man, and, I think, superior to any 
in moral and intellectual grandeur since the days of 
Christ and his apostles. His voluntary powers of rea- 
son and understanding in the front brain were great. 
But far greater were his involuntary powers of instinct- 
ive energy in the back brain. So great were his illu- 
minated instincts, and so perfectly in communication 
with God and nature, that they ruled, and moved his 
reason and all his voluntary powers to act. And when 
uncorrupted instinct, drawing its impressions purely 
from God and nature, compels reason to act 3 man must 
be sinless and holy, for he can not, under such impres- 
sions, go wrong. I conclude this Lecture by saying, that 



LECTURE VI. 113 

I should like to be informed whether Emanuel Swe- 
denborg, after his illumination, was ever known to 
commit sin. This is an important point to be known as 
a matter of science in relation to the views I have offered 
on instinct. To me, it is a point of deep and thrilling 
interest. My public Lectures here close, and my ex- 
positions as regards the philosophy of the so-called 
spirit-manifestations are finished. 



114 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 



LECTURE VII. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I am now about to bring my Lectures on the subject 
of the spirit-manifestations to a close. Indeed, my 
arguments, so far as regards the philosophy of these 
mental phenomena in connection with the instincts of 
our nature, were concluded in my last Lecture. As I 
stand before you this evening, for the last time, I am 
sensible that I can render you no better service than 
to show you the utter impossibility of superseding the 
Bible by another revelation of moral truth, and will 
also bring before you distinctly the magnanimity of 
Christ. 

If it be asked why the Bible should not be superseded 
by a better revelation, I answer, because it is impossible 
in the very nature of things to surpass it. If it be 
asked, Why should not improvements, at least, be made 
upon the original, as well as in the arts and sciences ? 
I answer, because a moral truth once given by the un- 
erring Creator, through his Son, to man, as a moral 
and religious being, can never be improved. As moral 
truth is but an emanation from the moral attributes and 



LECTURE VII. 115 

perfections of God's own nature, so it is stamped with 
immutability and immortality, can never change, and 
hence is not susceptible of the least improvement by 
men or by angels, in time or in eternity. As the living 
Son has fully revealed the character of the living 
Father in its highest and most sublime sense, as a 
being of perfect justice, goodness, love, and truth, and 
as he has set the whole before us in his spotless exam- 
ple as a rule of life for us and all subsequent generations 
of men to follow, how can it be improved 1 We are, 
for instance, commanded to love, forgive, and bless our 
enemies, to be kindly affectioned one to another, tender- 
hearted and forgiving, industrious, peaceable, and 
sober-minded, to do unto others as we would they should 
do unto us, and to be followers of God as dear children. 
In a word, to visit the widow and the fatherless in their 
affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the 
world, to love one another, and to do good unto all men 
as we have opportunity. And how, I ask, can this be 
improved 1 It is impossible ; because moral truth can 
never be improved. It is the moral food and life of 
the soul adapted to its moral nature, as much so as the 
delicious fruits, grains, and other vegetable productions 
of the globe are the natural food adapted to the natural 
life of the body. And these can not be changed till 
the globe and man's nature are changed. Nor can 
moral truth be changed till God's and man's natures 
are changed ! If we have a true revelation of God's 



116 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

moral perfections and character, then we have also a 
true revelation of moral truth, in the practice of which 
we become Godlike, by imitating him. Hence another 
revelation of moral truth is impossible, unless it be an 
entirely new revelation of God's character, which pre- 
supposes the one we now have to be utterly false. But 
this can not be, because it is adapted to our moral 
nature, our best feelings, our highest and holiest aspi- 
rations, and our dearest interest and happiness in time 
and in eternity. 

I am aware, it may be said, that Andrew Jackson 
Davis, in the mesmeric state, has visited the different 
and distant worlds belonging to our planetary system, 
has accurately and minutely described the various vege- 
table tribes, and even the animated inhabitants in their 
vast dominions, and that the writers of the Old and 
New Testaments have never done this, nor has it ever 
been revealed even by the Master himself. Suppose 
we admit all this to be true, what would it amount to 
in the end? Nothing, except a mere matter of geo- 
graphical and natural science as regards other worlds. 
In such a revelation there is not a single moral truth 
to perfect human virtue. And as it regards science, 
this globe contains more chemical properties than man 
can analyze, and a greater variety of vegetable and 
animal existences than he can understandingly dissect 
and investigate in one short life of three-score years 
and ten, or even if the period of his existence were 



LECTURE VII. 117 

protracted to a thousand years twice told. Of what 
use, then, would it be to us to leave this globe and 
invade the territory of other worlds, when there is 
enough for us to study and admire at honiel And 
let the world first come up to the standard copy 
of moral excellence and perfection, revealed and set 
before them by the Saviour, before they search for 
another. Let them first come up to his requirement, to 
be perfect, even as their Father who is in heaven is per- 
fect, in his present revealed character, before they 
seek for the revelation of a higher and more perfect 
character in God. I think it will puzzle them exceed- 
ingly to go beyond the Master. He has grasped, in 
his capacious thought, infinite space and unending du- 
ration, and filled them with the infinite attributes and 
perfections of an infinite God and Father ! And how 
they can go beyond this is more than my feeble thought 
can reach, or intellect conceive. 

We have this globe thrown out before us as a speci- 
men of infinite power for us to study and investigate, 
and are, at the same time, permitted merely to perceive 
that there are other worlds in the dominions of the 
Creator, and as spectators we are permitted to gaze on 
their beauty, order, and harmony, and from analogy 
to reason that they are inhabited by moral intelligences 
and other beings similar to our own. And this is 
enough for us to know in our present state of existence, 
without paying them, in person, a formal visit. But 



118 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

all such excursions, or clairvoyant revelations, could 
not make known a single moral truth as a rule of action 
for men to pursue. All the moral truths adapted to 
beings constituted as we are, have been revealed by 
prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles. They involve 
all the moral duties we owe to our God, ourselves, and all 
our fellow-men, in every possible condition of mortal 
life, even down to the silent grave. And this is enough 
for human joy. 

But so far from admitting, I deny, in toto, that mes- 
meric clairvoyance can survey, explore, unravel, and 
reveal other worlds or systems of worlds that roll in 
immensity, except the globe we inhabit, and but very 
little of this. But even if it could be done, it would 
be no accession to moral truth, but only to physical or 
natural science. 

The living Son has revealed the moral, absolute per- 
fections of the living Father for our imitation. And 
in that paternal character are concentered and set 
before us all the moral duties and obligations that con- 
stitute, in their performance, human happiness on earth, 
and involve all the light of moral splendor to which 
human beings can ever attain through the wasteless ages 
of eternity. And can any improvement, I ask, be 
made on such moral truths as these ? Every consistent 
and rational being will answer this question in the nega- 
tive. Then no improvement can be made on the truths 
of the Bible, as a rule of moral life, nor can they ever 



LECTURE VII. 119 

be superseded by the mesmeric revelations, dreams, and 
vagaries of men. What, then, is the use of these spirit- 
manifestations, but to drive men to insanity, to suicide, 
to disturb the repose of society, to break the charm of 
peace in many a happy family, to bereave husbands of 
their companions, to make wives widows, children 
orphans, and drown their eyes in tears, as they see 
their morning sun of domestic light and joy extinguished 
at mid-day, and their bright sky of mind robed in 
night ! 

But as regards understanding the peculiar doctrines 
of Christ and his inspired companions — such as the 
atonement, or in what sense he died for us as a sacri- 
fice to take away the sin of the world — his being the 
resurrection and the life of the world — his immortal 
reign — and in what sense that he, as Judge of quick 
and dead, is to reward and punish all mankind accord- 
ing to the deeds done in the body — and even in what 
sense he is the Son of God distinct from any of the 
human race — I say, as regards understanding these 
and other doctrines, I am satisfied that new reveal- 
ments, through clairvoyance or some other source, are 
to be made to the world. I do not mean new revela- 
tions of any doctrinal truths as additions to what are 
already in the Bible, but a revealment of the true 
meaning intrinsically involved in those doctrines al- 
ready recorded in the Scriptures, and concerning which 
the whole Christian world are divided and split up 



120 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

into sects. All these doctrines must be made to har- 
monize with nature — with reason — with the soundest 
principles of mental philosophy. And even the power 
invested in the apostles to work miracles of mercy will 
be again invested in men to do the same, and not only 
so, but be understood and explained. But, as regards 
the moral truths, the precepts revealed by the Mas 
ter and his inspired servants, there can be no mis- 
understanding even by the wayfaring man, though 
a fool. As to their meaning, all denominations are 
agreed, and there can be no misunderstanding as to 
man's duty, interest, and highest happiness, as a ra- 
tional and moral being in this, or any other world 
where Jehovah reigns. These truths can not be 
superseded nor even improved. 

Christ was sent from heaven. He came from the 
bosom of the Father — he knew the mysteries, beati- 
tudes, and powers of that world to come. He had 
seen, and therefore testified and bore witness to the 
truth he disclosed. Was not Jesus Christ, as the Son 
of God and the true light of the world, better qualified 
to reveal the duty, interest, and destiny of man than 
mesmeric clairvoyants'? Was he not better qualified 
for this work than the psychological mediums of the 
present . day, or the departed spirits they invoke 1 
Was he not better qualified for this work than John 
Calvin, John Wesley, Washington, Franklin, Bona- 
parte, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, or any others 



LECTURE VII. 121 

who are called upon to rap or move the medium's 
hand to write ? Were not the personal presence and 
the living voice of Christ on earth a more appropriate 
and dignified mode bj which to make a revelation to 
men, than the electro-magnetic raps of invisible de- 
parted spirits by an a-b-c process through the joints, 
fingers, and toes of mediums 1 What are all these 
mediums, or even the great names mentioned, com- 
pared with the Master, as to their moral or even intel- 
lectual grandeur? 'And what is their example, com- 
pared with his, as a model for all generations of men 
to emulate and follow 1 They have called upon Paul, 
Peter, John, and the rest of the apostles to rap. But 
why do they not call upon Jesus Christ, the Master 
of them all, to rap 1 This would be so obviously dis- 
gusting and impious, if not blasphemous, that they 
dare not, as yet, venture this outrage on Christian 
feeling. 

The revelation made by the Father through the Son 
is enough for human duty, interest, and happiness in 
life, and human hope and consolation in the hour of 
death. And who would be ashamed of him, and con- 
sider him so deficient in intellectual and moral attain- 
ments and power, as to presume to surpass him in 
making a better and more elevated revelation 1 Who 
would forsake the Master, renounce the moral sublim- 
ity of his doctrine, and follow another leader'? Did 
you ever candidly and seriously reflect upon his bare 

6 



122 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

magnanimity? Who, I ask, can dispute the moral 
power and intrinsic greatness of Jesus Christ? " We 
see the elevated rank he sustains and the stupendous 
authority with which he is invested ! As he was en- 
dued by the Creator with intellectual and moral 
powers far beyond those of the highest intelligences, so 
he was surely no contemptible — no degraded object. 
He was a greater than the prophets — a greater than 
Solomon — made better than the angels, and higher 
than the heavens ! He was the Son of God, and that, 
too, in the loftiest mold of perfection, and in a sense 
that you and I are not. 

Bearing a special commission from the Eternal One, 
and covered with the holiest mantle of inspiration, he 
came to earth as the Minister of Heaven to mediate 
between the two. He reached his hand up to the sky, 
and opened the cloud that vailed the truth and pur- 
poses of Jehovah, brought them down and displayed 
them to men. He reared the solid bulwarks of a 
pure religion in the very midst of the strongest empire 
of moral corruption and darkness ! He planted the 
standard of his cross at the very gates of hell, and 
caused its banner, stained with his own blood, to wave 
in permanent triumph over the nations, and over the 
crumbling ruins of ancient systems of heathen philos- 
ophy and Jewish tradition. He abolished outward 
and ceremonial worship under types and shadows. 
He laid the corner stone, and reared the walls of a 



LECTURE VII. 123 

spiritual temple for the worship of redeemed and glo- 
rified millions. He inscribed its altar to the one only 
living and true God ! He placed within it the conse- 
crated lamp of truth, lighted by the rays that stream 
from the sun of infinite mercy, and with its splendor 
revealed the duties of earth and the blessedness of 
heaven. 

Clothed with greatness as with a garment, he moved 
familiarly among men, demolishing the pompous errors 
of earth-born philosophy, as the foot of the giant crushes 
the sandy structures of the mole-hill. He stripped the 
glittering drapery from the hideous form of fashionable 4 
vice, and disclosed the heaven-born dignity of lowly 
virtue. He exhibited in the face of men's false views 
of honor the moral cowardice of revenge, the bravery 
of meekness, the nobleness of humility, and the base- 
ness of pride. He hung upon the cross to furnish 
blood in which to write for mankind the solemn lesson 
that even life itself is to be sacrificed for immortal 
truth, for conscience, for God, even as he sacrificed it 
for sin. He descended into the silent tomb, and rose 
again as a pledge for the immortal resurrection of all 
humankind. He wears the crown of mediatorial power, 
and sits at the right hand of Majesty on high. He 
has reigned through all ages, from that period down to 
the present moment, by the sway of his spiritual influ- 
ences. And he must reign till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet, till the last enemy, death, is destroyed and 



124 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

swallowed up in victory. All this not only presupposes, 
but positively teaches, that there was no future revelation 
to be made after that of Jesus Christ was sealed up and 
finished. Hence the bright and immortal reign of his 
revealed truth is not to be superseded by any other, 
but continue with irresistible power to the final con- 
summation. 

Such is a faint picture of our exalted views of the 
dignity and reign of Jesus Christ, the most wonderful 
being that ever appeared on this globe, the vicegerent 
of the Almighty, and the Son of his love. 
# The evidences of the divinity of his mission are 
placed on a foundation too deep to be undermined. Of 
such a being as the great revealer of life and immor- 
tality, the moral light of the world, and the bright 
example of the loftiest purity for us to imitate, we 
have no reason to be ashamed. The best and noblest 
minds that ever graced the earth have received Jesus 
Christ as the Son of God. Locke, whose eagle 
eye penetrated the deepest recesses of investigation, 
and traced the intricate windings of the human in- 
tellect — Locke was not too philosophical to be a 
Christian. 

Milton, whose genius walked in awful splendor 
through the courts of heaven, and glared in horrible 
magnificence amidst the gloomy caverns and torches of 
hell — Milton, whose name is covered with a poet-luster 
that the rust of ages shall fail to obscure, was not too 



LECTURE VII. 125 

elevated in his conceptions to fall in reverence before 
the scepter of Christ. 

Newton, whose gigantic intellect could scale the 
loftiest battlements of nature, ransack her towers of 
light in the sky, and stand in dignified composure, look- 
ing abroad on the universe from piles of thought — piles 
at whose fearful height ordinary minds grow dizzy in 
gazing — Newton, from the proudest summit of science 
and of fame, with all his mighty powers, bowed in hu- 
mility at the foot of the cross." 

I speak not of these as if Christianity needed the 
support of great names, but I do it to show the little- 
ness of little minds compared with the above, who 
would fain acquire a momentary notoriety, by speaking 
lightly of the revelation of Jesus Christ and his apostles, 
and assume to demolish and supersede it by the chi- 
merical dreams, reveries, and visions of mesmeric reve- 
lations, and ps} r chological rapping and writing mediums. 
Like the man who, failing to gain public notoriety and 
solid fame by intrinsic worth, fired the temple of Diana, 
at Ephesus (one of the seven wonders of the world), 
to render his name immortal, and thus damn himself 
to everlasting, so there are some who would fain secure 
a like notoriety, rather than fail of being noticed, by 
demolishing the fabric of Christianity in case they 
could not supersede it by a revelation of their own. 

All such puny efforts, though vain, are still injurious 
and annoying in their tendency, but are destined to 



126 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

perish from human remembrance and leave the temple 
of Christianity unmoved, unshaken ! It is built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself the chief corner-stone. And as it is 
destined to outlast the powers of earth and outlive the 
pulsations of ages, so the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it. Christ is not only the chief corner-stone, 
but equally sure will he be found the head of the 
corner when the work shall be finished, and the spir- 
itual temple consummated in future scenes. In this 
respect he will prove himself to be the Alpha and the 
Omega — the Beginning and the End — the First and 
the Last. 

I would therefore, in conclusion, most sincerely and 
earnestly advise all rapping and writing mediums to 
abandon their present silly and foolish enterprise be- 
fore they are irrecoverably lost and confirmed in the 
jerk ! And permit me seriously and kindly to advise 
not only all rapping and writing mediums, but all 
mesmeric and psychological subjects, to cease from 
their labors of love — to cease enlightening and bless- 
ing the world with their superior revelations, that 
throw those of Jesus Christ and his apostles so far in 
the shade. 



LECTURE VIII. 127 



LECTURE VIII. 

The seven Lectures contained in the preceding 
pages were publicly delivered in various sections ; what 
follows was not. I merely divide the subject-matter 
into Lectures to preserve a uniformity in the book. I 
append them as an act of. justice to Judge Edmonds, 
of this city, and his associates, who have published a 
work of 505 pages in defense of the truthfulness of 
spirit-manifestations. I must confess that the work 
is written with a great deal of candor and sincerity, 
and is decidedly the best that I have as yet perused 
upon this subject. The Introduction, the conjoint 
work of John W. Edmonds and George T. Dexter, 
contains 100 pages, and the Appendix, by Nathaniel 
P. Tallmadge, late U. S. Senator, and Governor of 
Wisconsin, contains 111 pages. The communications 
in the body of the work, occupying 294 pages, pur- 
porting to be made by the spirits of Bacon and 
Swedenborg, through the Doctor, who is a writing 
medium, are, with few exceptions, excellent, and can 
not be read but with pleasure, satisfaction, and profit 
by any candid and seriously- disposed mind. Yet 



128 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

those of Swedenborg certainly fall short, as to beauty 
and force of expression, of the earthly productions of 
that wonderful and immortal mind ! productions that 
have stamped the impress of his existence upon ages, 
and forbid his name to die. -4-He has forgotten, it would 
seem, how to spell his own name — the name of " one 
Sweedenborg, who wrote so many foolish things on 
earth, which he is willing to rectify in spirit/' But is 
not the contrary of this nearer the truth 1 and do not 
the productions of clairvoyants and mediums show that 
they live only by feeding upon the crumbs that fall from 
Swedenborg's generous and liberal table, mixed up, it is 
true, -with crudities of their own 1 Yet I say, that 
those attributed to him in this work are, with few ex- 
ceptions, excellent, and may be read with profit. The 
same may be said of the visions, as to their moral 
force, seen by the Judge. Indeed, there runs through 
them a vein of moral beauty that can not but exert a 
salutary influence on the mind of the reader. "What 
is said (page 376) on the character of Christ and his 
true mission on earth, is not only interesting, but dig- 
nified and grave. It purports to be an emanation 
from the spirit of Bacon ; and if that immortal mind 
had originated it while tabernacled in the flesh, it 
would have been an effort worthy of his head, and cer- 
tainly of his heart. True, I do not approve of the en- 
tire sentiment it breathes, but am only speaking of it, 
in its general features, as a mental and moral effort, 



LECTURE VIII. 129 

well worthy of the spirit who, it is believed, communi- 
cated it. 

I am, moreover, pleased with the communications 
attributed to Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, and feel no 
disposition to disguise the fact, that they bear a re- 
spectable impress of the exalted intellects of those dis- 
tinguished and lamented statesmen. They stand in a 
beautiful and dignified contrast with those meager 
communications that I have requested to be obtained 
from them through other mediums, and to which I re- 
ferred in my Fourth Lecture. With those three 
statesmen I had the honor of a personal acquaintance, 
and thus far I have labored in vain to find a medium 
who could induce the spirit of Henry Clay to commu- 
nicate to me the contents of the last letter he ad- 
dressed to me, and which is now in my possession, and 
yet I have found a mesmeric clairvoyant who has done 
it. This goes to prove what I have argued in my 
Fifth Lecture, that there are good and poor mediums, 
as there are good and poor clairvoyant subjects. 

I am pleased on the whole with Judge Edmonds and 
the Doctor's conjoint production, and with the candid 
manner in which they have given their sanction to the 
great moral truths contained in the inspired Book, and 
the testimony they have borne to the magnanimity of 
Christ as the Son of God. Dr. Adin Ballou, w T ith 
whom I am personally acquainted, has done the same, 
and I have great confidence in the moral principles 

6* 



130 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

and rectitude of that excellent man. And I have 
equal confidence in the talents, the moral bearing, and 
honesty of the Rev. Mr. Brittan, the ingenious and 
able editor of the " Spiritual Telegraph." The 
courteous and dignified manner in which he conducts 
his paper, and his candor and forbearance toward 
those who scurrilously assail him, justly entitle him to 
public respect. And notwithstanding the abuse and 
sneers of some time-serving editors and their petty 
assaults, and notwithstanding the error in which I con- 
sider him involved, yet a long acquaintance with him 
assures me that he is worthy of the entire and unre- 
served confidence of the public, and that confidence, I 
am satisfied, he will never betray. 

I make these remarks as a duty I owe to my tal- 
ented fellow-men, whom I consider in error, but hon- 
estly so, and whom it therefore ill-becomes me, and, I 
think, any other man to denounce merely because they 
can not see with his eyes nor understand with his in- 
tellect. The justice of these remarks will be seen and 
felt, when we reflect that no two minds are constituted 
alike — that we can not believe or disbelieve any doc- 
trine or sentiment at choice — that it depends wholly 
upon evidence, and that the very evidence which is 
abundant to satisfy one mind, may have but little or 
no weight upon another. Such is man, and his nature 
is thus constituted by the hand of God for the purpose 
of calling into action universally the breathings of 



LECTURE VIII. 131 

a charity which is the bond of perfeetness, and without 
which we are nothing." Let others do as they please, 
but as for myself, I will net denounce even the honest 
Atheist. This is not the outburst of a momentary im- 
pulse, but the settled convictions and feelings of my 
heart, as all know who have ever perused my u Im- 
mortality Triumphant," a work in which I make a 
direct attack on the principles of Atheists and Deists. 
In the seven preceding Lectures I have fully sus- 
tained the sincerity and honesty of all true mediums, 
and the advocates of the spirit- manifestations, and 
even of those among them who may expect a new reve- 
lation, superior to that contained in the Bible. Andrew 
Jackson Davis is an advocate of the spirit-manifes- 
tations, and has published a work on its philosophy ; 
and he is at the same time a superior mesmeric clair- 
voyant. And though he has indited and published a 
work, called u Nature's Divine Revelations," in which 
he has by no means done justice to the Bible, yet I am 
satisfied that he is a young man of spotless moral repu- 
tation, and acts according to the impressions and honest 
convictions of his own understanding. There are also 
many principles advocated in his book that I admire, 
and that are destined ultimately to prove useful to man- 
kind. It is only that portion of his work which is 
directly calculated to unsettle the faith and confidence 
of men in the Scriptures, as containing a revelation 
from God, against whkh I seriously object. This will 



132 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

be found refuted in my book above referred to, com- 
mencing at page 92, even though his work is not there 
named nor directly attacked. 

But it gives me pleasure to state that all sentiments 
of this character are not only excluded from the work 
of Judge Edmonds and his two associate friends, but 
the claims of the Bible, as containing a revelation from 
God, are sustained, and the character and mission of 
our Saviour respected. This will be the means of in- 
troducing his book extensively to the notice and perusal 
of the Christian community. His only object seems 
to be to bring all mankind to a common unity of senti- 
ment, sympathy, and harmony, as regards the doctrinal 
as well as moral teachings of Christ. He believes 
that this desirable end, which will issue in the removal 
of skepticism, and in imparting all the needed conso- 
lation to mourners over the loss of near and dear 
friends, will be effected through the doctrine of spirit- 
manifestations. 

Though the foregoing Lectures were written more 
than eighteen months ago, and, of course, without any 
reference to Judge Edmonds' book, which at that time 
had no existence, yet I consider them a fair refutation 
of the general views he has advanced, so far as any 
proof of the truth of the spirit-manifestations' is con- 
cerned. There are, however, some wonderful experi- 
ments recorded, which he has witnessed, and that I 
have sought for in vain. That he is sincere in his con- 



LECTURE VIII. 133 

victions I have not a doubt. It may be that I have 
been unfortunate in consulting what I call poor mediums. 
This is not my fault. I have called twice upon Mrs. 
Brown, formerly Mrs. Fish, of this city, who, I believe, 
was the first through whom these manifestations were 
made, or who first discovered that intelligence was con- 
nected with the* rappings. Her engagements at that 
time were such that she could not accommodate me, 
and since that period I have been absent from the city. 
I was certainly much pleased with her candor and sin- 
cerity, and in this matter I believe her to be incapable 
of deception or trick. It is therefore necessary that I 
should notice a few of the most important of the Judge's 
statements, or those at least that made the most im- 
pression on my mind when reading his book. This 
not only candor, but courtesy to him, as a gentleman 
of honor, demands at my hands. But before noticing 
those manifestations in his work that I deem import- 
ant, there is one point, by no means of trivial moment, 
that deserves a faithful notice, and on which I submit a 
few remarks for his candid consideration. These will 
be sufficient for my present Lecture. 

He speaks of the great division of sentiment in the 
Christian world as regards their peculiar doctrines of 
faith, and calculates the comparatively small number 
who attend religious worship by the number of churches 
erected for their accommodation, and that this small 
advance of Christian principles, under ministerial en- 



134 SPIRIT- MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ergy from the pulpit, is the result of eighteen hundred 
years experiment and trial. He therefore comes to 
the conclusion, that the Gospel of Christ has not an- 
swered its end, nor removed infidelity from the minds 
of many in Christian lands. And, as before remarked, 
he believes that the spirit-manifestations are the des- 
tined means now being employed by the Creator to 
heal these divisions — to establish Christian union and 
harmony on one common platform, and to advance 
more rapidly the spread of the doctrines of Christ and 
his companions. (See pages 8, 9, 66, 67.) 

In reply to this, I would say, that all magnanimous 
objects — all great and grand blessings under the gov- 
ernment of the Creator, in which the best and highest 
interest of the whole human race, as regards their ad- 
vancement, are involved, are, from their very nature, 
slow in their operations. This holds good both in 
physical and moral science. Man is a progressive 
being, and can not learn every thing in a day. 

It will be well in this case to notice, for elucidation, 
the volume of Nature in contrast with the volume of 
the Revelation, as both claim the same Author. Let 
us first notice the volume of Nature. In this great 
Book all the physical truths in their endless variety 
were written down from the beginning. Its mighty 
pages only unfold as the human race progress in the 
study of its lessons. Though some minds are far in 
advance of others, yet to each student the next page 



LECTURE VIII. 135 

must remain a mystery till his lesson on the preceding 
page is understood, and by its subject-matter his mind 
is disciplined and expanded to receive further light. 
Then the next leaf turns, and a new field of thought 
opens to his mental gaze, and new wonders thicken 
around him for solution. It is a study of never-ceas- 
ing delight ! If we look abroad on the world and con- 
template these students of nature, we find that even 
the learned, who are a few pages in advance of those 
called ignorant, differ among themselves as to their 
ideas of science, and advocate conflicting systems of 
philosophy. And not only so, but even those of the 
same Newtonian school differ among themselves as to 
certain points, while on the grand principles of this 
system of philosophy they agree. The humblest 
mind, however, understands the first page or two of 
Nature's Book, so far at least as concerns the great 
and essential point, which is to sustain his existence 
by cultivating the soil. But the students of nature all 
differ, and even wrangle, and yet this is the experiment 
and result of at least six thousand years ! But be- 
cause they are only, as it were, in the dawn of inquiry 
and improvement, and have not as yet arrived at a 
unity of thought and opinion on the great doctrine of 
science and philosophy, is this any evidence that the 
Book of Nature has not answered its end 1 For one, 
I think not. I might here add, that the same argu- 
ment holds good as to forms of human governments in 



136 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

which all mankind have been experimenting ever since 
society had an existence. Perfection of government, 
as to man's independence, liberty, and happiness, will 
come in some distant future, because its principles are 
ingermed in his being, and will be developed by study 
and experiment. But the advance to it is necessarily 
slow from the very constitution of his yet undeveloped 
nature. 

My argument will now be understood in regard to 
the volume of Revelation. It contains all the truths 
necessary for man's moral development, happiness, 
and consolation in time, and his dearest interest and 
endless progression in eternity ! It brings life and 
immortality to light, through a resurrection from the 
dead into future scenes ! Its moral preceptive truths, 
as the essential elements that constitute the moral 
food of the soul, are plain, and in these all Christian 
denominations are agreed, as nearly so, as all mankind 
are agreed in the fruits and grains that constitute the 
physical food of the body drawn from the volume of 
Nature. In what are called its doctrinal points they 
disagree, but still are improving and advancing. This 
is evident from the circumstance, that all doctrines are 
gradually softening down, as their adherents are grow- 
ing more and more liberal. Calvinism still retains its 
name,, but has undergone a most astonishing change 
since the days of the thundering Reformer of Geneva 
who established it. All doctrines are approaching a 



LECTURE VIII. 137 

common gaol — a center where they will one day meet, 
embrace, and mingle into one harmony and beauty. 
The name will be the last thing changed, and then 
Christianity with all its brilliant virtues and glories, 
as a common center, will throw out its healing beams 
of light and life on the darkness of surrounding na- 
tions, even as the central sun of heaven dispenses his 
light and genial warmth on the darkness of surround- 
ing worlds. 

To accomplish this, and enable our race to attain 
this eminence of moral perfection appertaining to their 
nature here on earth, may require not only eighteen 
hundred years more, but eighteen hundred thousand ! 
But to unfold and comprehend all that is contained in 
the conjoint volume of Nature and Revelation, and 
emulate its perfection, will require the ceaseless ages 
of eternity. Our Saviour clearly teaches that the 
steady and permanent power of his gospel in reform- 
ing, developing, and perfecting the human race as a 
whole, through all future time, though sure, would be 
slow and almost imperceptible in its advance. He 
compares it to a little leaven hidden in three measures 
of meal, and to the growth of vegetation, as in the 
parable of the mustard seed. Both these processes, 
though sure, are still so slow as to be imperceptible to 
the steady and constant gaze of the keenest eye. The 
change of vegetation can only be determined by a 
second look, after a long intervening period, and then 



138 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

comparing the two, as regards its appearance, and so 
on, till this smallest of seeds becomes a tree. It is 
compared to a stone cut out of the mountain without 
hands, it became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth. 

Hence, to enable the human race to reach the sum- 
mit of moral perfection that they are destined to attain 
on earth, under the never-ceasing energy of the gospel 
of Christ, will require ages on ages to roll. In order 
to effect this great end, I freely admit that it will re- 
quire the use of adequate means in addition to the 
moral force of the pulpit. But that these means are, 
as Judge Edmonds believes, the spirit-manifestations, 
I have yet to learn. No ! they came in entirely too 
late ! They were preceded by a visible and more 
tangible agent of power — yes, by a rapping and moving 
power far beyond that of rapping and moving tables. 
It is a power beneath whose raps thrones must crumble 
into fragments, despots fall, manacles break, and 
tyranny die ! It is the PRESS ! Yes, the moral 
power of the press is already the great co-working 
companion with the gospel of Christ ! Before this 
instrument, as to its idea, was invented by the im- 
mortal Faustus, what was the condition of the world, 
so far as its Christian character was concerned 1 Let 
the ignorance, cruelty, bloodshed, and gloom of the 
dark ages send back the answer. Where then, I ask, 
was the Bible 1 It was not seen by the millions of our 



LECTURE VIII. 139 

race ! Its written manuscripts, here and there a copy, 
were with the Pope, the Bishop, the Priest, shut out 
from the light of day in some cloister's dark recess, 
or vault. It was the strong arm of the press that tore 
away the bolts and bars of its prison, demolished its 
doors, snatched it from its secret and silent tomb, and 
flung it to the hearth of the cottager, to the poor 
widow in her solitude, to the lonely orphan, to the 
prisoner in his dungeon, flung it to the world, as the 
world's richest treasure ! The press ! that mighty 
engine of power and light tyrants feared, fastened upon 
it a tyrant's chain, and denied or restrained its liberty. 
But in Young America and Old England it has broken 
loose. It is unchained, and before its awful power 
tyrants this moment tremble and their thrones shake. 
It flings out its sheets by millions, and showers them 
over the globe. The water, the steam — yes, the light- 
nings of heaven — the electric power that moves the 
globe, have lent it their aid ! I had almost said that 
the Creator had lent it his own omnipresence in the 
telegraphic dispatch ! It has its millions of eyes, and 
beholds all things that are done under heaven, and its 
millions of tongues, to speak alike to the cottager and 
king, and it speaks without fear ! It is in motion, and 
beneath its tread the globe shakes to its center, the 
moral elements are set in motion, and tyrants may as 
well presume to arrest the globe in its mighty course 
around the sun, as attempt to arrest the advancing 



140 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

power of the press. It proclaims alike to the world 
the statesman's magnanimity and greatness, the orator's 
eloquence, the scholar's fame, the poet's inspiration, 
the philanthropist's deeds in the prisoner's cell, the 
hero's victories in fields of war, the oppressor's wrongs, 
the Christian's triumph, and the villain's defeat. Its 
transcendent importance, as an agent of moral power, 
should not be undervalued nor forgotten. It looks 
abroad with equal eye on thrones and hamlets, on the 
rich and poor, summons all alike to its tremendous 
bar, holds them in its grasp for trial, condemns or 
acquits, and proclaims its verdict to the world. 

In the light that this subject is now presented, it will 
be perceived that Christianity, as to its present position, 
and what it has already accomplished, should be con- 
sidered as dating from the commencement of the press, 
400 years ago, even though we must date back 1800 years 
to reach its origin and Author. It will also be borne 
in mind that the Jews, as a nation, rejected his gospel, 
and still continue to do so, which he himself foretold, 
and that the present Christian world have been gathered 
from heathen nations, and brought from barbarism and 
heathen night to their present civilization, refinement, 
moral light, and intellectual advancement. I would 
therefore kindly remind the Judge that should he con 
sent to give the case a re-hearing, it would be well 
for him to take into careful consideration the above 
items of evidence before he charges the jury or pro 



LECTURE VIII. 141 

nounces sentence as to the obvious result produced by 
the doctrines of our Saviour in eighteen hundred years. 

Judge Edmonds not only expresses his surprise at 
the slow advance of the gospel of Christ in so long a 
lapse of years, but expresses his astonishment at the 
far more rapid spread of the spirit-manifestations, 
which in about five years number tens of thousands of 
mediums and hundreds of thousands of believers, and 
that in converting the Atheist they have produced " an 
effect which the 36,000 pulpits in the land, with their 
countless sermons, have failed to produce." In this 
case they are every way superior to the gospel of Christ. 
Their superiority or inferiority I will not here under- 
take to argue. This I have faithfully endeavored to 
do in my Sixth and Seventh Lectures, which the reader 
may consult. But so far as regards the comparative 
spread of the two systems, I will say a word before I 
close, because some suppose that the rapid spread of 
these manifestations is an unmistakable evidence of 
their truth. 

The preaching of the gospel of Christ was commenced 
by his apostles after his resurrection, and this, in con- 
nection with their wonderful works, made more converts 
in the first five years than the spirit-manifestations have 
in the same period. And yet they did it by traveling 
on foot and without the aid of the press, and without 
the convenience of steamboat and railroad conveyance 
or telegraphic dispatch, all of which have been employed 



142 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

in advancing the doctrine of spirit-manifestations. The 
thousands of periodicals that have opposed, and even 
ridiculed and denounced, have aided in disseminating 
them, and advancing the cause. Judge Edmonds there- 
fore errs when he supposes that in the five years of 
their existence they have outstripped Christianity in 
their advancement. True, it is only ahout five years 
since they commenced communicating intelligence 
through the rapping and table-tipping operation. But 
was not intelligence communicated from the same source, 
whatever it may be, from the earliest ages of the world 1 
The Judge certainly dates them back long before the 
commencement of the Christian era. 

He says, page 45, " These phenomena have always 
astonished, but have never been accounted for. Egyp- 
tian, Chaldean, Grecian, and Roman history are prolific 
with statistics to sustain this position. Read Herod- 
otus, Plato, Xenophon, Pliny, Livy, or any other Greek 
or Roman author from which we glean whatever infor- 
mation we possess concerning antiquity, and upon al- 
most every page we find the writer discoursing upon 
mysteries, the work of an unseen agency which he could 
not comprehend. Homer and Virgil sang about them ; 
Socrates and the philosophers speculated upon them ; 
Demosthenes and Cicero harangued about them in ora- 
tions, and all were impressed with the same feelings of 
their incomprehensibility." But, I would ask, was there 
not in those early ages an intelligence manifested, even 



LECTURE VIII. 143 

as now, only in a different manner ? Let the Judge an- 
swer in his note on the same page. He says : 

u Cicero declares his age indebted to such an unseen 
agency for many valuable discoveries in physic, for 
warnings, for predictions, and extraordinary deliveran- 
ces ; and he says, ' I know of no one nation, polite 
or barbarous, which does not hold that some persons 
have the gift of foretelling future events.' In Plato's 
c Apology for Socrates' he is made to say, £ Because I am 
moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence which 
also Melitus, through mockery, has set out in the in- 
dictment. This began with me from childhood, being 
a kind of voice which, when present, always diverts me 
from what I am about to do, but never urges me on. 
Bat this duty, as I said, has been enjoined me by the 
Deity, by oracles, by dreams, and by every mode by 
which any other divine decree has ever enjoined any 
thing for man to do.' " 

Here then we perceive, that Judge Edmonds has da- 
ted the spirit-manifestations, and an intelligence con- 
nected with them, back not only eighteen hundred years 
to the dawn of Christianity, but he has gone far beyond 
that period. He has not only dated them back to the 
day of Herodotus, the reputed father of Grecian history, 
but even back to the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs, 
a period of twice eighteen hundred years ! It is grant- 
ed that the intelligence was, in some respects, mani- 
fested in a different manner from what it is in the pres- 



144 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ent day. It was then manifested through dreams, vis- 
ions^ and impressions, and given through heathen ora- 
cles when consulted. And during this long period, what 
has it effected 1 Has it equaled the grand results pro- 
duced by the moving force and moral power of the gos- 
pel of Christ % It will not do to deny the fact, that it 
has in all ages had its able and eloquent apostles and 
defenders. This the Judge admits. Homer, the father 
and prince of song, has breathed it to Greeks — Virgil, 
the Mantuan bard, sung it to Romans ! Demosthenes 
thundered it in Athens, and Cicero in Rome. Socra- 
tes taught it. Herodotus, Plato, Xenophon, and Livy 
wrote about it. The people believed it, and consulted 
this mysterious intelligence. The great philoso- 
phers of Grecian and Roman lore were its apostles. 
And, I ask again, what has it effected in thirty-six hun- 
dred years compared with the gospel of Christ in half 
that period 1 Nothing ! It has only changed from in- 
structing men and foretelling events through oracles, to 
performing the same thing through rapping and writing- 
mediums. Though heathens consulted this intelligence, 
believed it, and followed its instructions, yet it never 
raised them from heathen night to civilization — the gos- 
pel of Christ did, and gave them the light of life. 



LECTURE IX. 145 



LECTURE IX. 

I now proceed to notice a few manifestations of a 
peculiar class and character that I have never had the 
satisfaction to witness. True, they have been related 
to me by individuals who professed to have seen them, 
and I have, in many instances, when time permitted, 
given an explanation to the narrator. But as the gen- 
tlemen, authors of the work I am considering, occupy 
high stations in the community, and as their statements 
will be read by thousands, so I deem a direct notice of 
these points necessary. 

I have already stated, in my last lecture, that the 
work entitled " SPIRITUALISM" is a triune produc- 
tion of John W. Edmonds, George T. Dexter, M.D., 
and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, late U. S. Senator, and 
Governor of Wisconsin. Judge Edmonds and the Doc- 
tor, who are both medium-writers, are the authors of 
the whole work, except the Appendix. Of the general 
merits of the production I have already spoken, and 
also of the talents and standing of its distinguished 
authors, with none of whom I have the pleasure of a 

personal acquaintance. I wish it to be borne in mind 

7 



146 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

by the reader that Judge Edmonds and the Doctor, be- 
ing rftdium-writers, are both happily impressible. The 
Doctor's productions are evidence of this as regards 
himself, and the six interesting " visions" presented 
to the Judge, orally described by him as the scenes in 
each passed before his view, and by an amanuensis 
committed to paper, are evidence of the same as regards 
himself. I will once more state that there is nothing 
in any of the manifestations, throughout the entire work, 
but what is, in substance, accounted for in the first 
Seven Lectures of this book. But as I have said 
nothing there as regards the ringing of bells, or playing 
on instruments of music by some unseen agent, it may 
be said by some of my readers that I have omitted an 
important point. On this account I proceed to notice 
those phenomena only which are of a physical charac- 
ter. As regards those where intelligence only is in- 
volved, I would remark that this intelligence is so eas- 
ily accounted for, and on it I have been so explicit, that 
I deem any further notice of that branch of the subject 
unnecessary, until what I have written shall have been 
disproved. And, moreover, I shall confine myself to 
the statements of Judge Edmonds alone. I do this, not 
only for the sake of perspicuity, but because the au- 
thorship of the work is, by the public generally, asso- 
ciated with his name, calling it " Judge Edmonds' 
book ;" and, lastly, because I can find all the variety 
of physical manifestations in his portion of the produc- 



LECTURE IX. 147 

tion that may be found in that of his distinguished as- 
sociates. I shall, therefore, take the liberty to make 
a liberal quotation, and then submit such remarks as I 
may deem appropriate. 

The Judge says (pages 22, 23, 24) : " The bell was 
taken out of M.'s hand and rung, and then put back 
again. This occurred several times in the course of 
the evening." " Mrs. R.'s comb was taken out of her 
hair, and her hair suffered to fall on her shoulders.'' 
" The clothes of G. and K. and M. were pinned 
together in several places, and K. and M. were tied 
together by the arms with a pocket handkerchief." 
" On the 28th of March, 1851, I was one of a party 
of ten who were directed through the rappings to stand 
up in a circle in the middle of the room, and every one 
present was touched by this unseen power. Some were 
pulled down upon the sofa ; one was pulled nearly to 
the floor ; one had her feet shoved from under her so 
that she nearly fell ; a shawl was snatched from a la- 
dy's shoulders and thrown on the floor ; I was repeat- 
edly touched in different parts of my person ; chairs 
were pulled about, and a small table slid along of it- 
self several feet on the carpet." 

Page 26 the Judge says : " For three hours I there 
witnessed physical manifestations which demonstrated 
to me, beyond all doubt, that they were not produced 
by mortal hands, and were governed by an intelligence 
out of and beyond those present. It is in vain for any 



148 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

one to say we were deceived. I knew that I was not, 
and so did every one of that large party. * * * 
A bass viol was put into my hand and rested on my 
foot, and then was played upon. A violin was placed 
in my other hand, and likewise played upon. Another 
violin was hung around my neck by one of its strings, 
and I was struck frequently with a fiddle-bow. My 
person was repeatedly touched, and a chair pulled out 
from under me." 

Pages 73, 74 the Judge says : " In the mean time 
another feature attracted my attention, and that was 
physical manifestations, as they are termed. Thus, I 
have known a pine table with four legs lifted bodily up 
from the floor, in the center of a circle of six or eight 
persons, turned upside down and laid upon its top at 
our feet, then lifted up over our heads, and put leaning 
against the back of the sofa on which we sat. I have 
known that same table to be tilted up on two legs, its 
top at an angle with the floor of forty-five degrees, 
when it neither fell over of itself, nor could any person 
present put it back on its four legs. I have seen a 
mahogany table, having only a center leg, and with a 
lamp burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a 
foot, in spite of the efforts of those present, and shaken 
backward and forward as one would shake a goblet in 
his hand, and the lamp retain its place, though its glass 
pendents rang again. I have seen the same table tip- 
ped up, with the lamp upon it, so that the lamp must 



LECTURE IX. 149 

have fallen off unless retained there by something else 
than its own gravity ; yet it fell not, moved not. I have 
known a dinner-bell taken from a high shelf in a closet, 
rung over the heads of four or five persons in that clos- 
et, then rung around the room over the heads of twelve 
or fifteen persons in the back parlor, and then borne 
through the folding doors to the farther end of the front 
parlor, and there dropped on the floor. I have fre- 
quently known persons pulled about with a force which 
it was impossible for them to resist, and once when all 
my strength was added in vain to that of the one thus 
affected. I have known a mahogany chair thrown on 
its side and moved swiftly back and forth on the floor, 
no one touching it, through a room where there were at 
least a dozen people sitting, yet no one was touched, 
and it was repeatedly stopped within a few inches of 
me, when it was coming with a violence which, if not 
arrested, must have broken my legs." 

These are all the quotations I deem necessary for 
my present purpose. I will commence by giving a 
faithful notice to one important circumstance. On the 
24th and 25th pages the Judge states an occurrence 
that varies somewhat from any thing that I have heard 
of, or read in the spirit-manifestations. He states the 
circumstance of some hieroglyphic characters being 
written on a small piece of cartridge-paper under the 
table, when there was no pen or ink in the room. I 
have read of frequent instances where writing has been 



150 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

performed under the table, as in the case of John C. 
Calhoun writing " I'm with you still" but in all cases 
pen, ink, and paper (or pencil) were required for the 
use of the spirit. Sometimes, I grant, that the writing 
was done on the table, but in total darkness, and in one 
instance at least the writing materials were locked up 
in a trunk, and the key put where it was stated the 
medium could not conveniently get it without its being 
known, and yet in the morning there was writing on the 
paper. This experiment I frankly confess would con- 
vince me, provided I were allowed to watch the trunk. 
Indeed, the family should not have retired and slept, 
till so important an experiment were faithfully tested. 
I can easily conceive how the medium, retiring to rest 
under the full impression that spirits would write on 
that paper, could rise from her bed in somnambulism, 
believe herself to be that spirit, get the key unobserved, 
perform the task in that state, return to her bed, and 
rise in the morning without the least remembrance of 
the deed. If it was not done in this manner by some 
human being, then I must candidly confess that I have 
no philosophy to reach the case. I must bow to the 
mandate of my Maker, and my desire is to do so, 
when I find the truth and know his will. 

But so far as the truth of any departed spirit wri- 
ting with pen and ink, or pencil, under a table is 
concerned, or in darkness, after requesting the lights 
to be extinguished, I must candidly confess that the 



LECTURE IX. 151 

whole matter, to say the least, looks suspicious. If 
spirits can play bass viols, violins and guitars — ring 
bells and lift a table with a man upon it weighing two 
hundred pounds — if they can jerk chairs from under 
persons and even trip up their heels — if they can snatch 
a comb from a lady's hair or a shawl from her shoul- 
ders and throw it on the floor — if they can pin the 
clothes of three ladies together, and at the same time 
firmly tie together the arms 'of two of them with a 
pocket-handkerchief — then why can they not write with 
the pen or pencil on top of the table, and in sight of 
the company 1 Why can not' the circle meet and have 
this experiment performed in open daylight on the top 
of the table and in the presence of a public audience, 
or in the evening when the light is brilliant ? The pen 
and pencil are substances that can be seen, and if we 
saw these moved by an invisible hand, or even if the 
hand were visible, like that at Belshazzar's feast, on 
the wall, and transmitting intelligent sentences to pa- 
per, or even unknown characters, the victory would be 
won. In this case I am with the believers in the spirit- 
manifestations ; I am theirs forever, and will labor and 
die in their cause ! If they knew my sincerity, and 
how anxious I am to know the truth, they would feel a 
sympathy and interest in my favor, and a charity as 
deep, at least, as I have exercised toward them, in vin- 
dicating their honesty and candor in these pages before 
the world. But there are so many modes by which a 



152 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

medium in an abnormal condition could prepare a piece 
of writing even at home, and succeed in conveying it 
under the table with other sheets or pieces of paper 
placed there for the spirit — all this, I say,, could be 
so easily accomplished, and yet the medium be entirely 
honest, remembering nothing of the matter, that the 
experiment can not be safely relied upon as proof that 
it was done by a spirit. 

Permit me, moreover, to remark, that all I have 
stated above, could have been performed even by trick, 
by any shrewd individual, and without the possibility 
of detection. And this trick, performed by a man 
skilled in the art of legerdemain, would have been con- 
sidered an inferior one by a New York audience. But 
it is not in the power of Herr Alexander, nor of the 
wizard Anderson, to cause a pen or pencil to erect itself 
to the writing angle, and transmit letters to paper on a 
table in the presence and plain sight of a promiscuous 
audience of four or five hundred persons, when 
there was no one in contact with that table. This it 
is not in the power of any mortal to perform without 
the aid of complex machinery, which could be easily 
detected, and hence every intelligent individual would 
be compelled to refer it to an invisible superhuman 
agent. And though many in that audience, on account 
of their ignorance, would not believe that it was done 
by such an agent, yet this could not in the least affect 
its verity, provided they all saw it done and barely as- 



LECTURE IX. 153 

sented to the fact, that it positively took place before 
their eyes. Many, I grant, do not understand the prin- 
ciples of what we term natural philosophy, and hence 
do not know its rational boundaries, nor where, so far 
as pertains to the power of man, it must stop as re- 
gards the application of its causes and effects. But the 
evidence of the audience being in harmony, it is for the 
intelligent and philosophic portion of that audience to 
decide what was the nature of the agent acting, or 
whether it was in the power of man, philosophically or 
otherwise, to cause a pen or pencil thus to write. 

I have named a promiscuous audience of four or five 
hundred persons, because there is no rational probabil- 
ity, as the universal test of experiment proves, that the 
whole of these could be naturally in the electro- 
psychological state ; or even in the mesmeric state, or 
in some other abnormal condition. But such an ex- 
periment as this in the presence of ten, twenty, or 
even five hundred good, impressible, selected mediums 
would be no evidence whatever, that the pen or pencil 
moved and wrote on paper. It would be no evidence, 
that there was a pen, pencil, or paper on the table, or 
even a table before them ! Entertaining the bare idea, 
that they were under the superior impression of spirits, 
and were expecting such a result, they could be made 
to see the table, the pen, pencil and paper before them, 
and the whole scene produced, when it was nothing 
more than the waking up of the original electro- embod- 



154 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

iment of these substances in their brains that had been 
impressed there ever since they first saw a pen, pencil, 
paper, and table. It is not external matter we see, 
because we have never seen any thing outside of our 
eyes. It is merely the image of external objects re- 
flected by the rays of light on the retina of the eye, 
and thence transmitted through the optic nerve to the 
throne of the spirit, that we see. It is there impressed 
forever, to be called up by the permutation of circum- 
stances to the inspection and scrutiny of the spirit's 
eye. Hence to make a person in the psychological 
state, or a medium, see a thing, it is not necessary 
to present the material object, but merely to call up 
its original impression already existing in the brain. 
Hence the pen or pencil, and its motion on paper, 
might be distinctly seen when the material object is 
not presented to the medium. 

But no human being could produce such an impres- 
sion as above stated upon those mediums so long as 
they retain the belief that they are impressed by spir- 
its as mediums, because the superior impression must 
in all cases bear rule. But could I have taken those 
five hundred persons before they believed themselves 
mediums (they being in the electro-psychological state), 
I could have made them see the whole writing scene 
with pens and pencils, self-moved, passing before 
them ! And not only so, but I could have left the im- 
pression so distinct, real, and life-like on their minds, 



LECTURE IX. 155 

that they would have gone into a court of justice and 
made solemn oath to the whole as a reality. And no 
empanneled jury, nor judge upon the bench, would 
have supposed their real condition to be different from 
that of any other person, because it is a state in which 
they naturally exist by the very constitution and de- 
velopment of their brains. 

But as regards this writing under tables, in trunks, 
or on tables when lights are extinguished and darkness 
conceals the operation, I again remark, that it looks, 
to say the least, suspicious, when spirits are so power- 
ful and ready to perform any thing else. And though 
this writing under tables and in other concealed places 
is considered by many as evidence of intentional fraud 
in the mediums, yet I must say to such that this by no 
means follows ; that it may be done by some shrewd 
individual, and in what manner I have already stated. 
I will also state how it can be done, and in all sincer- 
ity and candor, by a real medium. It is a well-known 
circumstance, that the medium, while under the sup- 
posed influence of the spirit, often believes herself to 
be that spirit. We have evidence of this in all cases 
where the medium supposes the spirit takes entire pos- 
session of her body, using her organs, and speaking 
from her lips. Hence in. this condition, and many 
more analogous to it, the medium may prepare the 
writing at home, or at the house where the circle 
meets, as the production of the communicating spirit, 



156 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

believe it, and when seated in the circle, it may be 
rapped out through that medium by the a-b-c process, 
that paper and pencil are wanted on a drawer under 
the table. The medium believing herself to be that 
spirit, and that she is there even writing an article 
that is already written ! and the result follows in find- 
ing the paper written by the medium ! And moreover, 
as it was produced by her involuntary powers of in- 
stinct, so her reason and understanding knew nothing 
of the transaction ! 

It will not do to evade the force of this by arguing 
its impossibility, or by saying that the medium could 
not carry on this long chain of circumstances without 
[mowing it. In reply I have only to say, that I have 
performed it upon good psychological subjects, and I 
am ready to do so again, and will even consent to per- 
form it before a public audience whenever called upon 
by Judge Edmonds and his friends to do so. In this 
case it is to be understood that I confine the experi- 
ment to the subject's performing the whole without his 
knowing that he had any thing to do with any part of 
the entire transaction, but on the contrary, his full 
conviction, that the writing was done under the table 
by a spirit ! And throughout the whole, he shall be 
wide awake and in full possession of his reasoning fac- 
ulties ! Mediums are only psychological or mesmeric 
subjects, but under the influence, as they believe, of a 
higher order of impressions, and therefore can not be in- 



LECTURE IX. 15T 

fluenced to any extent by human impressions, as many 
could before they became mediums. This position I 
have taken and argued in my Fifth Lecture, and 
this position I feel myself fully competent to sustain. 
All who have heard me lecture On my favorite science 
of Electrical Psychology, and seen me experiment, 
know that I can do this. And I feel mortified that a 
science of which I claim authorship should be diverted 
from its own natural field of wonders and usefulness, 
and applied to spirit-manifestations. 

But it may be said, that the secrecy and adroitness 
with which the mediums could even honestly carry on 
such a work as this, is not only incomprehensible, but 
absolutely impossible. In reply to this, I ask, would 
any person be at all surprised if Herr Alexander and 
the wizard Anderson should enter a room, and perform 
all these things by sleight-of-hand, after having well pre- 
pared themselves for the task ? I think not. But suppose 
there were six or even ten such persons in a room with as 
many more spectators, what could they not accomplish 
as regards such wonders 1 If it be said that the me- 
diums know nothing of legerdemain, I admit that they 
do not practically. But all these things are open and 
naked to the impression of their involuntary powers. 
They instinctively perceive them, and even feel the 
sympathetic impression of one another's thoughts and 
the thoughts of those in the room, so that they can in- 
tuitively see how the source of the so-called spirit-man- 



158 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

ifestations can be concealed from the sight and scrutiny 
of others. And as they are under the full impression 
that the movement of the spirits is invisible and must 
remain so, they are therefore impressed to proceed and 
act accordingly. This the whole history of their pro- 
ceedings for the last four years fully corroborates. All 
experiments that can be performed openly and yet re- 
tain their mystery, are done openly. But those that 
can not, are done under the table. It is no uncommon 
thing for the spirits to request the lights to be extin- 
guished, and then the circle may be sure of the most 
astonishing manifestations. Even then angels with 
their wings have fanned the brows of the circle. It is 
no uncommon circumstance for the spirits to request, 
through rapping or writing, some skeptic or skeptics 
to leave the room who were too inquisitive, as they 
could not proceed to give manifestations unless they 
did so. This proves its strong alliance to mesmerism, 
for the mesmerk; subject can not proceed when he is 
embarrassed and disconcerted by the scrutiny of skep- 
tics, till they leave the room. 

If it be said, that the mediums receive no impression 
to learn any thing like the cunning of legerdemain or 
sleight-of-hand, I reply that in one of the published 
books, the name of which I can. not now recall, the 
writer states the case of a little girl who was an excel- 
lent medium, and saw a person perform an interesting 
trick with cards and difficult to understand. The little 



LECTURE IX. 159 

medium went alone into a room a few moments, inquired 
of her guardian spirit, came back and performed the 
trick. She said the spirit taught her how to do it, and 
had taught her several other tricks. She moreover 
added, that the spirit informed her that they often 
played whist in the spheres ! This is certainly a fair 
specimen, and goes to prove that there may be the im- 
pression of cunning to the full extent of any skillful 
magician. This I fully believe, and it is difficult to 
set bounds to the grasp of human intuition or instinct, 
when roused into action and thus brought into commu- 
nication with mind and matter. This is fully exem- 
plified in the case of Mr. Davis, and, indeed, of all 
good, impressible, and favorably-developed brains. 

I now proceed to notice the ringing of bells, and also 
the playing on bass-viols and violins, as stated by the 
Judge. These have been usually performed under the 
table, and of which there are instances given in the 
Appendix of the book I am noticing. And though I 
have heard it stated by individuals in private conversa- 
tion, that they had seen such things done openly, yet 
this record of the Judge is the first fair and reliable 
account that I have read. He says : " The bell was 
taken out of M.'s hand and rung, and then put back 
again. This occurred several times during the even 
ing." He again says : " I have known a dinner-bell 
taken from a high shelf in a closet, rung over the heads 
of four or five persons in that closet, then rung around 



160 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

the room over the heads of twelve or fifteen persons in 
the back parlor, and then borne through the folding- 
doors to the farther end of the front parlor, and there 
dropped on the floor." 

Now I must candidly confess, that this is a point of 
great moment — I may even say of paramount import- 
ance — and requires close scrutiny and a candid consid- 
eration. The Judge has frequently stated, in describing 
other manifestations, that there were burning lamps in 
the room at the time. In the account of the ringing 
of the bells, there is nothing said of the quantity of light 
there was at the time of that occurrence in the room 
or rooms. I would therefore respectfully inquire when 
the bell was taken from M.'s hand and rung and put 
back again, was there a sufficiency of light in the room? 
If not, then the investigation is at an end, and the mys- 
tery solved as much so as if it had been done under a 
table. But to proceed : Was the light sufficient for the 
Judge to see clearly all the persons in the room, and 
also the bell in M.'s hand? How came she to have 
that bell in her hand ? Was it in expectation, or un- 
der an impression, that the spirits would take it from 
her hand and ring it ? As " this occurred several times 
in the course of the evening," did she constantly hold 
that bell in her hand, or take it up only when it was to 
be rung by the spirit f If so, what induced her to take 
it up at those specified times ? Was it rapped or writ- 
ten out that she must take the bell in her hand, or had 



LECTURE IX. 161 

she merely an impression, that she must do so 1 Was 
she standing or sitting? was the whole company seated 
or not, and "huddled around the medium, or more dis- 
tant 1 Was no one near her when the bell was rung 1 
Did the judge distinctly see the bell taken from her 
hand, suspended, as it were, in air, and there rung and 
passed back again through the air to M. without the 
aid of a mortal hand? These interrogatories, it will 
be perceived, are not only pertinent, but important in 
this case, as much depends upon her position, good 
light, and the relative positions of those in the room. 

If M. were seated in the circle around the table, and 
the bell in her hand and near her person, it is easy to 
perceive how her other hand, which she believed to be 
that of the departed spirit, and with which she felt her- 
self identified by impression, could take the bell from 
her and ring it under the table, or at her side, and return 
it back again to her hand, as it was. This could be done 
unobserved by the circle, and with a burning lamp on the 
table, whenever the spirit-impression, as she sincerely 
believed, came upon her to act. This experiment I can 
perform upon a psychological subject, so that he will have 
no remembrance of his own personal agency in the mat- 
ter, but believe it was done by a spirit. If she were 
standing or seated in a distant part of the room from the 
company, or with other mediums of kindred, sympathetic 
impressions around her, the experiment could have been 
more easily produced unobserved by the Judge. 



.162 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

I proceed to notice his second case of bell-ringing. 
The bell was taken from a high shelf in a closet, and 
there rung over the heads of four or five persons in the 
closet. Was there light in that closet ? Did the Judge 
see the bell taken down from that shelf, suspended in 
the air, and rung over the heads of those persons with- 
out the aid of a mortal hand ? Was he in that closet ? 
Were the front and back parlors well lighted? Did 
he see that dinner-bell come out of the closet still sus- 
pended in the air, and rung over the heads of twelve or 
fifteen persons in the back parlor ? And did he see it, 
still suspended in the air, pass through the folding- 
doors into the front parlor, and there dropped on the 
floor ? And all this time did no mortal hand touch it ? 
After being rung in the closet over the heads of the 
persons in it, did it come out itself, leaving those per- 
sons behind, or did they bring it out, or come out with 
it? Were the persons in the back parlor seated, or 
standing and moving about while the bell was ringing 
over their heads? Did no one accompany it as it 
passed through the folding-dcors into the front parlor 
where it was dropped on the floor ? Was there any 
person or persons in the front parlor where the bell lost 
its suspension and fell ? Did the Judge see it fall, and 
no human hand near it ? These questions I deem im- 
portant, and as the Judge says that " he appears upon 
the witness's stand to testify to things that he knows," 
he will pardon me for propounding the above questions 



LECTURE IX. 163 

as regards their legal bearing, for I am not much ac- 
quainted with judicial proceedings. 

Though I am satisfied how tables and other wooden 
substances, and even human beings and various articles 
may be charged, moved, and raised, and which I feel 
myself able to explain and defend on natural principles, 
and all of which can be done by any circle, and without 
a medium in it, yet I candidly confess, that I have no 
philosophy nor experiment by which I can solve the 
raising of a piece of metal of any kind, when entirely 
detached from other substances. Here all my experi- 
ments have proved vain, and I am equally satisfied that 
the arm of human philosophy, as now understood, can 
not possibly grasp it. No human hands, no electro- 
nervous fluid from human brains can charge metal so 
as to overcome its gravity and suspend it in air, nor 
even to make it move or tip. And let me see this ex- 
periment performed without the intervention of human 
hands or physical aid, and I am a firm believer, that 
spirits are here, and that I can commune with the 
sainted spirits of my departed father and mother. To 
use the eloquent breathing of Dr. Nott : " Were the 
dead mindful of the devotion that the living pay them, 
I would bedew the graves of my sainted parents with 
my tears, and disturb ihe repose of their ashes with my 
nightly orisons." 

The questions that I have asked in relation to the 
suspension and ringing of these bells show the position 



164 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

in which I would desire matters to be arranged in order 
to produce the experiment so as to leave no doubt on 
the mind. Bell-metal is so dense and its pores so 
minute, and so much weight in a small compass, that 
its gravity can not be overcome by charging it with 
nervo-vital force from a thousand brains ! But if the 
above questions were all answered to my entire satis- 
faction, yet there is another position that the well- 
known principles of electro-psychology compel me to 
state. Is not Judge Edmonds naturally in this impres- 
sible or psychologic state 1 If he is not, then his tes- 
timony is good. Though this can not at present be de- 
termined by the experiment of even a skillful operator, 
yet there are circumstances connected with his state- 
ments entirely favorable to the conclusion, that he is in 
this state. He is a writing-medium, and can be im- 
pressed to see visions, and so can all mesmeric and psy- 
chological persons. The reader will please turn to 
page 26 of Judge Edmonds' book, or notice my quota- 
tion from it in this Lecture. From several circum- 
stances there stated, such as placing a bass-viol in one 
of his hands, resting it on his foot, a violin in his other 
hand, and a second violin hung around his neck by one 
of its strings, and all three played upon, it is evident, 
that he was the main object of attention and interest 
whom the spirits, or, as I think, the mediums desired 
to convince and gain over to their cause. Hence, the 
minds of all the mediums and believers being concen- 



LECTURE IX. 165 

trated upon him, and he firmly believing it to be spir- 
its, produced all the impression necessary to prepare 
"him not only to see, but also to hear every thing to 
which his senses were directed. To say the least, the 
whole was so completely calculated to throw him off his 
vigilant guard, that he could not tell whether the me- 
diums or spirits adorned him with instruments of mu- 
sic, nor which of the two touched the strings, when the 
mediums were so officiously huddled around him. In 
this condition, let the bell have been rung by any one 
at pleasure, and though constantly held in the hand, 
yet he could have seen it moving over the heads of the 
company, and heard it ringing, and at length heard it 
drop on the floor in the front parlor. Or he could have 
been made to see and hear all this when there was not 
a bell in the room ! The same will apply with equal 
force to the bass-viol, violins, and the music. He could 
in this state be made to see the whole moving before 
him as distinctly as he saw the moving scenes in his 
visions, and the one would have been just as much evi- 
dence of an existing reality as the other. I again 
pledge myself to the public, that I am able to perform 
all this upon a hundred or a thousand psychological 
subjects, and with or without bells, bass-viols, or vio- 
lins, as they may desire. And not only so, but I can 
in an instant render the subject totally blind, or so im- 
press his vision, that he can see no person but himself 
and me in an audience of a thousand, or permit him to 



166 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

see as few or many as I may choose to show him. 
Hence, if the Judge is in the electro-psychological state, 
as the whole chain of circumstances go to prove, then 
he could not in this case be a witness in his own cause. 

I am aware that he appeals to the corroborating tes- 
timony of others present, but it remains to be proved 
that they, in their natural state, are of that class of 
persons who, like the community at large, can not be 
impressed. The mediums are certainly in the mesmeric 
or psychological state, and for any individual to attempt 
to show the contrary, is but a vain and useless effort. 
And as we know that all the wonders recorded of bells 
ringing, bass-viols and violins playing, pinning to- 
gether the dresses of ladies and tying together their 
arms, jerking combs from their heads, striking the Judge 
with a fiddle-bow, and jerking a chair from under his 
honor, and making them believe it is all done by spirits ; 
I say, as we know, that all these, wonders can be per- 
formed upon persons in the electro-psychological state, 
so we have no evidence of spirit-manifestations in such 
occurrences as these. The natural is to be adopted 
when it accounts for a phenomenon, and only when this 
fails have we any right to appeal to the supernatural 
for its solution. We perceive, that there is consider- 
able jerking in this matter, and I would kindly admon- 
ish them to take heed before they are irrecoverably 
lost and confirmed in the jerks. [See Third Lecture.] 

I am aware that the Judge says (page 26) : " It is in 



LECTURE IX. 167 

vain for any one to say we were deceived. I knew that 
I was not, and so did every one of that large party." 
I no more doubt the sincerity, candor, and honesty of 
Judge Edmonds, than I do my own existence ; but I 
will try the question whether or not he has been de- 
ceived, at least in one instance, and to which he attaches 
great importance. 

He says (page 18) : " Another feature was, that now, 
for the first time in this connection, I saw a clairvoyant, 
and .our interview, which lasted nearly three hours, was 
conducted partly through him and partly through the 
rappings. And now, too, for the first time, I wit- 
nessed some of the more elevated teachings of this 
matter, so much of which I have since received." This 
interview took place, as appears from the date of his 
notes, February IT, 1851. At this date it appears, 
that the Judge was not yet a firm believer in the spirit- 
manifestations, and even knew nothing of mesmerism. 
His previous interview was with a lady, who it appears 
possessed the faculty, in her natural state, " of telling 
the character and mood of mind of any person upon 
whom she might fix her attention, which she did by 
holding in her hand or binding on her forehead some 
writing in which that person's thoughts were expressed," 
and one whom she had never seen. The Judge tested 
this by experiment, and found it to be true. This, he 
says, presented to him a new feature. This shows that 
he was entirely unacquainted with mesmeric and psy- 



168 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

chological phenomena. I now come to the instance I 
have in view, and to which I invite the attention of the 
Judge. 

February 23, and pages 20, 21, being only six days 
after he first saw a clairvoyant, he says : " About this 
time, as I was one day in my library, the thought sud- 
denly intruded itself upon my mind, that I must go to 
a person who was named and magnetize him, and I 
would receive a communication from a spirit in a high- 
er condition than any who had yet communed with me. 
Now as I had no acquaintance with that person, never 
having seen him but once, and then hardly exchanged 
ten words with him, and as I did not know how to mag- 
netize him, never having seen the operation but once, I 
disregarded the impression. In a day or two it came 
again and with great distinctness^ and both times when 
I was not thinking of the subject, but my mind was 
intently engaged on something else. After it had come 
the second time, I sought a rapping medium, and in- 
quired about it. I was told that it was not, as I had 
supposed, my own imagining, but a direction it would 
be well for me to heed. I accordingly sought an inter- 
view with the person named, who was a clairvoyant, a 
rapping medium, and a medium for physical manifest- 
ations. At the appointed time I met him with a party 
of six or eight others, none of whom I had ever seen 
before. And, much to my surprise, I received a com- 
munication pointed directly to two trains of thought in 



LECTURE IX. 169 

vay mind, one that had been there for some twenty-five 
years, and another that had been there some two or 
three months, but neither of which I had ever uttered, 
or even hinted at to mortal man or woman. For some 
time they were spoken to as distinctly as if I had pro- 
claimed them with a loud voice. I was startled, for 
here was to me evidence from which I could not escape, 
that my most secret thoughts were known to the intel- 
ligence that was dealing with me. There was no 
avoiding the conclusion. Reason upon it as I would, 
imagine what solution I might, there was the fact 
plainly before me, and I knew it." 

On the above quotation I offer a few remarks. 
Here is a plain case of mesmeric action, and what any 
good mesmeric subject can do, and that is to read the 
thoughts and impressions of other minds, and even by 
sympathy to feel and express all their pains of body 
as well as distress of mind. Every one who has the 
least acquaintance with clairvoyant impressions knows 
this fact as one of the most common features of the 
mesmeric state. And yet Judge Edmonds has so lit- 
tle acquaintance with mesmerism, that he attributes 
this act of the clairvoyant in revealing his secrets, 
to the intelligence of some immortal spirit that was 
dealing with him and knew his most secret thoughts ! 
In this case at least he is certainly deceived, and yet 
he places great reliance upon it as proof of spiritual 
intercourse ! He refers to it at page 75 : " My most 



170 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

secret thoughts, those which I have never uttered to 
mortal man or woman, have been freely spoken to, as 
if I had uttered them." He again speaks of them as 
thoughts called up from the solitude of his study, 
where they had been buried for a quarter of a century. 
His principal prop as regards intelligence to prove 
spirit-manifestations fails him, and shows that he is 
here deceived. 

In this long quotation it will be also perceived, that 
the impression on the mind of the Judge, that he must 
go and see a certain clairvoyant and magnetize him, 
and the results that followed in accordance with this 
impression, all go to prove that he is in the electro- 
psychological state, and hence a writing-medium, and 
whose mind can be impressed with interesting and 
beautiful visions. 

How natural it is, then, that while the Judge was 
yet warm with the deep-stirring impressions on his 
mind of what the clairvoyant had revealed in regard 
to his most secret thoughts, and believing it to be done 
by spirits, that he should be prepared to hear the ring- 
ing of the bell by an invisible intelligence, and which 
took place at the very next interview. And however 
incredulous he was when he first commenced his inves- 
tigations, and however scrutinizing and exact to detect 
what he then deemed imposture, yet it is easy to con- 
ceive how a man, even of Judge Edmonds' capacity 
and talent, and who had not, till the time above stated, 



LECTURE IX. 171 

even seen a clairvoyant, should be thrown off his vig- 
ilant guard by his secret thoughts being disclosed, and 
be prepared to believe any thing and every thing that 
might be performed by mediums. Human nature is 
so constituted, that the greater the skepticism, oppo- 
sition, and vigilance of a talented man, the greater 
will be his credulity and passivity when the reaction 
fairly comes. Hence I am not surprised that he should 
sit entirely passive, and have bass-viols and violins 
hung about him by mediums, be beat with a fiddle- 
bow, and have his chair jerked from under him, and 
yet so far from resisting, take the whole in good part ! 
Whereas if this had been done by any individual when 
the Judge was upon the bench and trying a cause, he 
would not only have had him indicted and punished for 
contempt of Court, but also tried and fined and im- 
prisoned for assault and battery. 

But the Judge being perfectly convinced that he 
was dealing with immortal spirits who had placed these 
instruments in his hands and about his neck, was not 
in a condition, at that instant, to scrutinize this mat- 
ter, and the mediums might have touched the strings, 
or struck the Judge with the bow, with perfect ease 
and unobserved by him, while he was in such an over- 
whelming state of excitement and awe as a scene like 
this must have naturally produced on his mind. Such 
matters are personal concerns that each must witness 
for himself, or else receive the united testimony of a 



172 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

promiscuous audience of four or five hundred persons 
as to the certainty of their having in reality occurred. 
Let me see this performed without a mortal hand on 
instruments of music held by myself or any other per- 
son, and all others kept at a distance, and I am pre- 
pared to enter on a new scene of action and continue 
to pursue it faithfully to my dying day. I am then 
ready to move my philosophy one step higher, and 
show that the spirits of our departed friends — those 
dear and former loved ones of earth — do indeed im- 
press the involuntary powers of our minds with heav- 
enly impulses, and hold communion with us through 
the mysterious instincts of our nature in those beauti- 
ful mystic fields that lie beyond the realms of human 
reason and consciousness — those fields where wonders 
reign — where dreams inspire — where presentiments are 
born and beauty unfolds. 



LECTURE X. 173 



LECTUEE X. 

I should have closed my examination of Judge Ed- 
monds' book on " Spiritualism" in my last Lecture, 
were it not for the circumstance that he has adopted 
the views of Von Reichenbach of the existence of an 
Odic-force in nature. I have said all that is necessary 
in the preceding nine Lectures as regards the doctrine 
of spiritual intercourse, and which will cover every im- 
portant point contained in his book, or in the entire 
subject of the spirit-manifestations, so far as it has, as 
yet, been developed and published to the world. But as 
it may be said that I have entirely overlooked the Odic- 
force that pervades all nature, and exists in our bodies, 
and through the energy of which spirits are enabled to 
impress human beings, and communicate with them, so 
I have not fully met the subject in all its important 
bearings. This objection, however, would be of but 
trivial moment, because I admit that electricity, in some 
of its forms, is the connecting link between mind and 
matter, and 'through which spirits have rendered them- 
selves visible in past ages, and held converse with mor- 
tals, and for which the Odic-force would only stand as 



174 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

a substitute. I would, therefore, be distinctly under- 
stood that I admit the possibility of spirits now commu- 
nicating with us, but as the revelation of divine truth, 
for man's duty, interest, and happiness is complete, so 
there is nothing more can be revealed as an addition to 
the stock already on hand. All future revelation, 
therefore, must regard the making known to mankind 
how the doctrinal truths recorded in the Scriptures are 
to be understood. And this I am satisfied will be done, 
as man's nature becomes more and more developed so 
as to require it ; and just as much light will be let in 
upon the empire of mind as it is able to bear. 

On this subject Emanuel Swedenborg was consistent, 
who undertook to explain how the Scriptures should Jbe 
understood by man. And though I am not of his faith, 
yet I must confess that his powers were as immense as 
his gifts were wonderful. I entertained strong expec- 
tations that Mr. Davis would follow on, and advance 
the work, but was disappointed when his " Nature's 
Divine Revelations" appeared. And I am moreover 
satisfied, that some new revelation^ as regards the true 
understanding of the doctrines of the Savior, will be 
revealed to the world. 

Having made these introductory remarks, I now pro- 
ceed to the consideration of Reichenbach's claims to 
having discovered a new power in nature which he calls 
Od, or Odic-force. I might here incidentally remark, 
that if such a power does exist, he has been preceded 



LECTURE X. 175 

in his discovery by Professor Grimes, of Lansingburgh, 
N. Y., who is certainly entitled to the claim of priority. 
He published a work, I think, in 1844, in which he 
contends that there exists in nature a substance more 
sublimated and subtile than electricity, and which he 
calls Etherium, and that this is the cause that induces 
the mesmeric state. It is a production I would advise 
the admirers of Reichenbach to read. It certainly con- 
tains many valuable thoughts. 

But to proceed. I am compelled to deny the exist- 
ence of such a power in nature for which Reichenbach 
contends, not only in the absence of all proof to sustain 
his assertion, but also because I can discover no pos- 
sible use for its existence. The following account was 
communicated through Judge Edmonds as a speaking- 
medium : 

Pages 39, 40, the Judge says : " One of the first 
questions was this : What is this which I am witness- 
ing 1 Is it a departure from nature's laws, or in con- 
formity with them 1 Is it a miracle, or is it the opera- 
tion of some hitherto unkncwn but pre-existing cause 
now for the first time manifesting itself? 

" The answer I got was : It is the result of human 
progress — it is in execution, not a suspension, of na- 
ture's laws — it is not now for the first time manifest- 
ing itself, but in all ages of the world has at times been 
displayed. 

" I reasoned, then, if it is a law of nature, it must be 



176 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

universal in its application, and it may be discovered 
and understood by man ; and I asked that I might un- 
derstand it. I was told, however, that my knowledge 
of nature was too imperfect to enable me to understand 
it as yet. I asked what I might read to assist me to 
the requisite knowledge, and I was referred by one 
present to Von Reichenbach's c Dynamics of 'Magnet- 
ism, 5 and there I found that he had discovered a hith- 
erto unknown power in nature. He named it Od, or 
Odic-force, and described it as an exceeding subtile 
fluid existing with magnetism and electricity, found in 
fire and heat, and produced in the human body by the 
chemical action of respiration and digestion and decom- 
position, and issuing from the body in the shape of a 
pale flame, with sparks and smoke, and material in its 
nature, though so sublimated as to be visible only to 
persons of a peculiar vision. In my experiments I have 
myself once or twice seen it, but have met with those 
who could see it as readily as those through whom that 
German philosopher conducted his examinations. 

" I was given to understand, that this power was 
used in these manifestations, but how, and in what man- 
ner, I have not learned. I was also made to know 
that electricity and magnetism had something to do 
with them." 

The above quotation is sufficient to show that Judge 
Edmonds has adopted the views of Reichenbach, and 
as he has once or twice seen the invisible flame of this 



LECTURE X. 177 

Odic-force, it also confirms positively what I have be- 
fore stated, that he is in the psychological or mesmeric 
state, for to all other persons this supposed substance 
is absolutely invisible. It certainly can not be seen by 
natural vision. In this state of the case it becomes 
necessary that we fairly examine and test the evi- 
dence which this German philosopher has furnished to 
prove the truth of its existence, and on which he bases 
his whole theory which has produced so much excite- 
ment in the scientific world. And I hesitate not to af- 
firm, that every enlightened mind, every man of inde- 
pendent, unbiased thought, will be astonished at the 
credulity of many literary men in receiving a theory 
sustained by such foggy evidence, and for no other rea- 
son only because it was originated by a philosopher in 
a foreign land, of high-sounding titles and a great name. 
Whereas if this same work had been written and pub- 
lished by some talented but humble mesmeric lecturer 
in this country, it would have received little or no at- 
tention from the learned and the great. 

Though there is too much repetition, and the work 
needs compression throughout, yet I admire the plain 
classic chasteness of its style. I admit the force, en- 
ergy, and power of Reichenbach's mind. He has left 
the impress of its greatness on almost every page of 
his book. His patience and perseverance in the steady 
pursuit of his object are worthy of all praise. These 
alone evince the solid materials of no ordinary mind, 

8* 



178 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

and combined with other circumstances speak his great- 
ness. Were the premises he has assumed true, his 
conclusions, which are carefully and logically drawn, 
would be also true, and his work would stand as a mas- 
ter effort of a giant mind. But his premises being 
unfortunately false, his conclusions are therefore false, 
and his work stands before us, in the middle of the 
nineteenth century, as a stupendous monument of hu- 
man folly ! Before I proceed to notice his pretensions 
to a new discovery, I will first speak of Mesmerism in 
general. 

It is an established and well-known fact, that a per- 
son in the mesmeric state is so sympathetically en rap- 
port with the magnetizer, that if pain be inflicted with 
a pin upon any part of his body, the subject will in- 
stantly feel it, and describe the spot on his own person. 
You may touch it, for instance, upon the magnetizer's 
fore-finger, and the subject will complain that some 
one is pricking his fore-finger. Or touch the pin upon 
the magnetizer's ear, and the subject will instantly rub 
his own ear, and say some person is pricking it. Or 
pull a lock of the magnetizer's hair, and the subject 
will complain that some one is pulling his hair. In all 
these cases it is necessary that the magnetizer should 
keep his mind concentrated upon the subject, willing 
him to feel the corresponding sensation. But in case 
his mind is not upon the subject at all, and should he 
unexpectedly feel the prick of a pin, the subject would 



LECTURE X. 7 179 

not heed it. This proves that the sensation is con- 
veyed from his own mind, by an act of his will, to the 
subject, for it is, after all, the mind only that feels, and 
not the body. In further support of this position, let 
the magnetizer, for instance, feel no pain at all from 
the touch of a pin, but only will the subject to feel, and 
the same sensation will be fully realized. 

It is the same with the other senses. Let the mag- 
netizer take a pinch of snuff, and the subject will sneeze 
and say that some one has given him snuff. Or let the 
magnetizer take tobacco in his mouth, and the subject 
will feel sick. Let him taste sugar, vinegar, salt, coffee, 
or brandy, and the subject will describe the taste of 
each, and suppose these substances to be in his own 
mouth. But in all these cases it is necessary that the 
magnetizer should concentrate his mind upon the sub- 
ject and will him to taste these articles. But if he is 
capable of exercising a strong imagination without the 
actual taste of these substances, and then ivill the sub- 
ject to taste what he himself imagines, he can produce 
upon him the same successful results. The same re- 
marks apply with equal force to hearing. Let the 
magnetizer only imagine that he hears thunder, or the 
constant roar of cannon in the battle-field, and the sub- 
ject will hear the same, and start from his seat in alarm ! 
It only requires a concentration of mind upon the sub- 
ject with an attendant anxiety that he shall hear, and 
the work is done. 



180 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

The same remarks will apply to seeing. Let the 
magnetizer, for instance, see a snake, or any other 
creature, and will his subject to see the same, and he 
will do so, and describe it to the life, as to color, size, 
and position. Or let the magnetizer only picture their 
forms in his mind, and the same result will follow. I 
lectured at Clinton Hall, New York, in March, 1846, 
on the philosophy of Mesmerism, and performed exper- 
iments to sustain my positions. My mesmeric subject 
was the celebrated Mr. Tarbox, one of the best clair- 
voyants in the United States. And there, for six eve- 
nings in succession, I produced every variety of exper- 
iments on the different senses. But as sight is the one 
with which I am at present more directly concerned, I 
will confine my remarks to this exclusively. More than 
fifty experiments the same evening were performed upon 
this young man in succession, merely by mental impres- 
sions, in the animal, bird, reptile, and insect kingdoms, 
from the mammoth down to the flea, and without a sin- 
gle failure ! The experiments were conducted in the 
following manner. The subject was seated upon the 
stage carefully blindfolded by two handkerchiefs. I 
was requested to stand upon the floor in front of the 
audience. The name of the animal, bird, reptile, or 
insect was then written by any skeptic in the audience, 
and the paper handed me in silence. I was requested 
to use invariably the same interrogatory — What do 
you see ? In every instance the experiment proved 



LECTURE X. 181 

successful. I was then requested not to speak at all, 
but merely to will in silence. And though this mode 
?ook a little longer than to call his attention directly 
to the object by speaking, yet the experiments proved 
equally successful. All this can be testified to by thou- 
sands in this city who witnessed these startling exper- 
iments. Or if any wish for individual testimony, I 
can refer them to Dr. Parmley, 0. S. Fowler, Dr. King, 
and Reverend Mr. Fishbough, all of this city. 

In experimenting on all the senses, as above stated, 
and insuring success, it only requires in the operator 
the power of concentrating his mind upon the mesmer- 
ized subject, and bearing along with it in his imagina- 
tion the full electro-imaged impression of the desired 
experiment, willing the result, and it is done. The 
only possible use of inflicting pain on any part of the 
operator's person, or of his tasting or smelling any 
substance, or of seeing the animal or object literally 
before him is, so that his mind may be more vividly 
and sensibly impressed to act on the subject when his 
powers of imagination and concentration are too small. 
But in all cases where the anxiety and interest of the 
operator's mind are intense and great as to the result 
of his experiment upon the subject, he may be sure of 
success. If he becomes angry, and even successfully 
conceals it, and happens at that instant to turn his at- 
tention to his subject, he may be sure that the subject 
will become angry, strip off his coat, and prepare to 



182 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

fight when he knows no cause for it, nor whom to at- 
tack. And so it is with all the passions, emotions, 
and desires existing in the operator's soul. Even in 
the examination of diseases, the subject feels by sym- 
pathy all the pains, aches, weakness, and distress of 
the patient. 

What I have said above is still further demonstrated 
by what is called clairvoyant excursions. In these the 
subject is impressed, and wholly conducted by the 
mind of the person put in communication with him. 
By him he is apparently transported to some distant 
location in a foreign land, or to a dwelling on some sol- 
itary island in the watery waste. Through the impres- 
sions of his conductor's mind he describes the exterior 
of the domicil. Through the same medium he enters 
in, and surveys and describes the doors, windows, fur- 
niture, pictures, and ornaments of the room, or of all 
the rooms, and the persons who reside there and oc- 
cupy them. And I care not how good may be the sub- 
ject, yet the success of the experiment depends on the 
power of the imagination and concentration of the 
conductor's mind. Through him he sees the picture — 
or, more strictly, reads the impress of it in the con- 
ductor's soul. 

Though the subject's attention can be directed to, 
and impressed by man to examine a room or a piece 
of dead matter, yet he can not by man be put in com- 
munication with matter. Even though he can, through 



LECTURE X. 183 

a piece of matter, get communication with the person 
who has handled it, still, as all matter stands in a 
negative relation to the subject, so he is naturally in 
communication with it the moment he is mesmerized. 
Hence, when intending to examine matter in any one 
department of nature, he should not, on any considera- 
tion, be mesmerized by man. He should put himself 
into the state by a mental abstraction, and when no 
one knows it. This can easily be done by holding in his 
hand, or coming in contact with, the substance he de- 
sires to investigate, and fastening his attention upon it 
in mental abstraction, forgetting every thing else but 
the object before him till he passes into the state. 
Habit will soon render this familiar and agreeable. If, 
for instance, he feels impressed to examine a magnet, let 
him hold a magnet in his hand on which to fix his eyes ; 
or, if he wishes to examine any of the metals, let him 
hold that one in his hand to gaze upon which he de- 
sires to investigate. If he feels impressed to examine 
water, let him put his hands in water, till by a mental 
abstraction he puts himself into the state. If he de- 
sires to investigate the flowers, fruits, or the various 
vegetable tribes, let him hold that species in his hand, 
which is the intended object of his investigation, and 
look upon it till he passes into the state. If he wishes 
to investigate the geological formations of the globe, 
let him take those minerals in his hand that compose 
their strata. If he desires to investigate any of the 



184 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

birds or animals,^ let him come in contact with one 
of that species which is the object of his inquiry 
and solicitude. If lie wishes to examine man or 
woman, let him lay his hands upon them and pass 
as usual into the state by a mental abstraction, and 
not allow them to mesmerize him. If he wishes to 
look upon and examine nature, as a whole, let him 
fasten his mind upon her greatness, and hold nothing 
in his hand till he passes into the state. I have be- 
come satisfied, of late years, that mesmerizers will ruin 
the energy, the power, and the glory invested in the 
mesmeric domain, by their own selfish prepossessions 
and foolish or silly impressions on the mind of the sub- 
ject. Let them cease their labors, and set his impris- 
oned faculties free, and we shall soon receive a very 
different message from the higher department of the 
mesmeric state. I am pleased to see that this course 
of mental abstraction is almost universally adopted 
and pursued by mediums, which the very nature of the 
case obliges them to do, and hence their communica- 
tions on mind and matter, as regards science, will soon 
outstrip those of all the man-mesmerized subjects. 
And this, I think, is the great and good end the Crea- 
tor has in view, and that he will overrule the so-called 
spirit-manifestations to bring the mesmeric power to 
bear upon its own legitimate, important, and obvious 
end. 

The subject should go into the examination of nature 



LECTURE X. 185 

alone entirely ignorant, if possible, of human opinions 
concerning the point he desires to investigate. And as 
he is, while in the mesmeric state, still connected with 
the globe and breathing its surrounding elements, so 
he is in communication with nature through the electri- 
cal ocean in which he is submerged, and can turn at 
pleasure to any of her departments, and hold free and 
familiar converse with her mysteries. And as all sub- 
stances in nature are constantly sending off their elec- 
tro-atmospheric emanations, and the subject being left 
free, unimpressed, and uninfluenced by human minds, 
he can then, and only then, draw his instructions di- 
rectly from the impressions of her own bosom. He 
can then hold intuitive converse with her immense 
magazine of substances, and instinctively pour out riv- 
ers of thought in full, gushing eloquence, when, so far 
as his voluntary powers of reason and understanding 
are concerned, he is entirely ignorant and unlettered in 
the schools of men. To receive his ideas from the im- 
pressions of the minds of those with whom he is in 
communication is very different indeed from receiving 
them directly from the impressions of nature herself. 
If the clairvoyant desires to know what is in man, let 
man impress him ; but if he desires to know what is in 
nature, let nature impress him. And while consulting 
her oracle, no human being should be near him — no 
human mind should invade the sanctuary of his soul to 
know what he is doing, and while in the state, he should 



186 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

write down, with his own hand, all that has been dis- 
closed. And, let me repeat, that he should go into the 
examination alone entirely ignorant of human opinions 
concerning the point he desires to investigate ; for even 
these may impress his mind and lead him astray, be- 
cause it is the superior impression that governs his 
mind, and blinds him, and renders him invulnerable to 
all other impressions, however truthful. Hence it will 
be perceived that Swedenborg is the only individual 
of modern times who has gone into the superior or illu- 
minated state in a proper manner, and met nature in 
her own solitary greatness, and has thrown out a world 
(I had almost said an eternity) of thought ! If he has 
erred, that error could have been received only through 
the impression of preconceived opinions as regards both 
nature and revelation. All somnambulists go into the 
state as I have described, not by mesmerizers, but by 
an impression from some object or circumstance in na- 
ture, and they immediately rise from their pillows, and 
attend to, and investigate that object, and let all others 
alone. Somnambulism is natural self-mesmerism. The 
two states are identical, and these few hints as regards 
magnetizers and mesmerism will not, I hope, be disre- 
garded by Reichenbach and his learned admirers in 
England and America, should they in future attempt, 
through clairvoyants, to investigate and unravel the 
arcana of nature. 

There is one point more connected with the mesmeric 



LECTURE X. 187 

state, on -which I deem it necessary to bestow a few 
remarks, before I proceed to test the merits of Reichen- 
bach's claim to having discovered a new power in na- 
ture termed Odic-force. I refer to the mode of taking 
communication -with the subject in the mesmeric state. 
It is evident that the mesmeric subject, when placed 
in the state, can not at first see, hear, or feel any other 
persons besides his mesmerizer, unless they are put in 
communication with him. But as to the mode of taking 
a communication so as to become en rapport with the 
subject, there are many erroneous ideas entertained, 
and this is the grand difficulty under which our cele- 
brated author labors. It was at first supposed that 
none could obtain communication with the subject ex- 
cept by the direct act of the mesmerizer, and only then 
by allowing them one by one to join hands with the 
subject, and making a few passes from arm to arm, or 
else by touching some other part of his body. But it 
was next discovered that any person could place him- 
self in communication with the subject by simply taking 
hold of his hand, and without any aid from the magnet- 
izer. It was soon found out that the magnetizer could 
place the subject in communication with any individual, 
or with a whole audience, without any contact whatever, 
by simply requesting the subject to turn his attention 
to them. It was next discovered that any individual, 
by placing his mind intently upon the subject, with 
great anxiety and desire, could at length gain his atten- 



188 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

tion, and thus put himself in communication with him 
as perfectly as if it had been done by contact and with 
the aid of the magnetizer. Hence, when lecturing be- 
fore large audiences, I have been frequently interrupted 
in my experiments by one or two magnetizers obtaining 
a communication through this secret mode with my 
subject, and diverting his attention from the impressions 
I desired to produce on his mind. In all such cases he 
could point out the individuals who were influencing 
him, and state what I must do to prevent it, so that I 
could proceed with my experiments. And it is evident 
to my mind, that Von Reichenbach supposes it to be 
impossible to gain a communication with the subject, 
or the subjects one with the other, only by actual con- 
tact. This is clearly manifest from the whole chain 
of his reasoning upon the subject. Indeed, he takes 
this for granted, as an established fact, and proceeds 
to his argument as though it had never been questioned, 
but as a point upon which all are agreed. This proves, 
that however great may be his powers of intellect, and 
however grand and elevated may be his conceptions of 
nature and her operations, and however deep and pro- 
found he may be in understanding the various sciences 
as now taught in the schools and institutions of his 
country, yet he is still unlettered in the science of mes- 
meric phenomena, and stands in the background upon 
the old platform where Mesmer, his own countryman, 
left it, except that he has renounced the magnetic tub 






LECTURE X. 189 

used by Mesmer. I am aware that Reichenbach. per- 
formed his experiments mostly upon subjects in the som- 
nambulic or cataleptic state, to test the existence of his 
supposed Odic-force. But this does not in the least alter 
the case. I have already stated that the somnambulic 
and mesmeric states are identically the same, for the 
same class of experiments can be performed upon the sub- 
jects of both. The only difference is, that, the mesmeric 
state is induced by the aid of an operator, while the som- 
nambulic state is not. Indeed, I may say that a mesmer- 
izer is entirely unnecessary even to bring a person into 
the state who has never been mesmerized at all. This 
can be effected just as well by his own act, independent 
of all foreign influence. All that is necessary is, that 
the individual should seat himself, entirely passive, in a 
room where he will not be disturbed, and fix his atten- 
tion for an hour upon some object he may hold in his 
hand, and not turn his eyes from it, but keep a steady 
and constant gaze. This should be continued daily till 
the state is induced. Upon natural somnambulists al- 
most any impression can be made even in their waking 
state, and so it can upon cataleptic persons. But this 
impression will be much greater upon some than upon 
others, according to their sensitiveness, or the degree 
of their nervous impressibility. A communication can 
be taken with all persons of this character asleep or 
awake, and in the same manner and variety of ways 
that it can with persons in the mesmeric state, and the 



190 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

clairvoyance in the good subjects of. each is alike bril- 
liant. The same may be said of good subjects in the 
electro-psychologic state. With all these classes of 
persons a communication can be taken simply by a 
mental impression, and independent of any personal 
contact whatever. 

I would now say, that Reichenbach builds up his 
whole theory of the existence of an Odic-force on the 
testimony of somnambulists (who are but mesmeric 
subjects), and upon persons in a cataleptic state, and 
upon persons who are in an electro-psychologic state. 
This latter class are principally those upon whom he 
tests his experiments with a magnet and other sub- 
stances, so far as regards the sense of feeling. And 
the former class are principally those upon whom he 
tests his experiments with a magnet and other sub- 
stances, as regards their sense of seeing. Of these he 
introduces upon the stand six witnesses, who declare 
that they see the flames of this- invisible Odic-force. 
We will now proceed to a fair and candid examination 
of the case, and see what his testimony amounts to on 
the mind of the public, who are our empanneled jury 
to try this cause. 

I will first notice his testimony as regards the sense 
of feeling. Page 17, he says : " If a strong magnet, 
capable of supporting about ten pounds, be drawn down- 
ward over the bodies of fifteen or twenty persons, with- 
out actually touching them, some among them will 



LECTUBE X. 191 

always be found to be excited in a peculiar manner. 
Sometimes three or four are met with in such a num- 
ber as the above mentioned." This I admit to be 
correct ; and this is about the number we usually im- 
press to a greater or less extent, when experimenting 
in electro-psychology. These are psychological sub- 
jects, and I can impress them in like manner and to 
the full extent as above, by simply passing down my 
fore-finger without contact, instead of a strong magnet, 
and have done so at a distance of thirty feet, and hun- 
dreds of times. And not only so, but I have done it 
with a wooden cane, distant from the subject to the 
farther extent of a large hall, and before a thousand 
persons. And I pledge myself, that I can do it with 
any substance Mr. Reichenbach or his friends may 
choose to place in my hands, at a distance of five hun- 
dred feet ; and in all these instances the subject shall 
feel it with the same force as though I passed it within 
an inch of his body ! It is not the magnet, nor any 
other substance that produces these effects, but it is 
the mind of the experimenter simply producing an im- 
pression upon the sensitive mind of the subject, because 
mind in all such cases transcends matter in its power 
to sympathetically communicate with, and impress and 
control mind. 

Page 18. In describing the different effects of the 
magnet upon different persons, the author says — " It 
is rather disagreeable than pleasant, and combined 



192 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

with a slight sensation of either cold or warmth, re- 
sembling a cool or gently warm breath of air, which 
the patients imagine to blow softly upon them. Some- 
times they feel sensations of drawing, pricking, or 
creeping ; some complain of headache. Not only 
women, but men in the very prime of life, are found 
distinctly susceptible of this influence ; in children it 
is sometimes very active." All this I admit to be 
true, and would reply, that I can produce these same 
effects, with all their varying sensations upon different 
individuals, by simply passing down my hand, or a 
piece of wood, iron, gold, silver, copper, or zinc. I 
have done so in many instances, so that some have 
fainted away. In Syracuse, before an audience of a 
thousand persons, I threw a lady several times into a 
fit, by simply passing down my hand before her as an 
experiment, and in an instant I could at pleasure bring 
her out of her lit. I performed the same experiment 
upon a young man in Auburn, before an audience of 
eight hundred persons. His fits, to which he was sub- 
ject, were awful, and, though he was perfectly insen- 
sible and convulsed before that audience, yet, at an 
instant, when the request was made, I brought him 
out, and through these means cured him. And I hold 
myself responsible for the truth of what I utter. It 
is only the impression that is produced on the minds 
of the sensitive, and hence no two feel alike. Where- 
as, if it were the result of a powerful magnet, there 



LECTURE X. 193 

could not be experienced from it such opposite effects 
as heat and cold. The same substance, however sub- 
tile, must act in some measure uniform as to its phys- 
ical effects upon human bodies. As fire produces a 
sense of heat, and ice of coldness, upon all, so the 
magnet can not produce directly opposite physical sen- 
sations upon different human beings. It will not do to 
evade the force of this argument by saying, that it is 
the exceeding subtilty of the Odic-force that does this. 
Electricity and galvanism are inconceivably subtile, 
yet their physical sensations upon different human 
bodies are the same when the shock is given ; and so 
it is with all known substances in nature. If the Od- 
force, as it is called, varies from all others, then it is 
surely odd enough, and hence it is rightly named. 

Reichenbach then states (page 19), that the magnet 
in its downward pass produces its various effects upon 
healthy individuals, upon those of sedentary habits, 
and upon persons laboring under every species and 
grade of disease down to catalepsy, and " lastly upon 
those who walk in their sleep, and the true somnam- 
bulist without exception.' 5 Now I would respect- 
fully say, that all what he here so minutely details is 
the natural result of impressions made on the minds 
of persons in the electro-psychological state, as every 
one knows who has the least acquaintance with this 
science, and of which, it would seem, that the distin- 
guished author has never heard. 
9 



194 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

That any substance whatever will produce these and 
other results, such as heat and cold, tremblings, shak- 
ings, prickings, spasms, and faintings, provided the 
expectation, anxiety, will, or determination of the 
operator's mind is sufficiently great or active, is 
not only certain, but Reichenbach inadvertently ad- 
mits it. 

After stating the powerful effects of a magnet capable 
of suspending ninety pounds, and which Miss Nowotny 
grasped with a convulsive force, so that she was un- 
able to loose her hands, he says (pages 51, 52) — li But 
the singularity seemed to reach the height of incom- 
prehensibility when it proved that not merely the 
magnet, but even a simple glass of magnetized water, 
possessed the power of drawing along the hand of Miss 
Nowotny. It is true that this occurred in a much 
weaker degree, but her hand was unmistakably at- 
tracted, both in the catalepsy and at every other time, 
by a magnetized glass of water, in such a manner that 
a tendency to follow this in every direction made it- 
self evident." Here Reichenbach is perfectly dumb- 
founded ! He magnetized a glass of water, and she, 
taking the impression from this circumstance that the 
water would also attract her, could not resist the act 
of following it. Here he admits what I have argued ; 
and I will add, that I can attract the subject to any 
part of the room I may choose, or repel him from me 
by a mere act of my will to go to any individual in the 



LECTURE X. 195 

room, and again attract him to me, and without the aid 
of a glass of magnetized water. 

But, to his astonishment, he has at last found some- 
thing that will attract besides a steel magnet ! His 
mind conceives a new force, and its singularity is so 
great as to " reach the height of incomprehensibility." 
He conceives the idea, from the magic force of this glass 
of water, that it must be some other power besides elec- 
tricity or magnetism, because water has no magnetic 
power to attract any substance ! He moreover con- 
ceives the idea that this power may be universal. Our 
German philosopher is now ready to begin a wild-goose- 
chase excursion to inspect all substances on the globe ! 
What astonishing results, what great discoveries are 
made known " by a simple glass of magnetized water !" 
He is now ready to begin his excursion. 

He says (page 52) : " Contemplating this, and con- 
vinced that so strange a phenomenon could not exist 
isolated in nature, I was desirous of trying whether the 
same effect as that of the water might not be brought 
about by means of some other body ; if this proved to 
be so, I hoped to see cases occur with various modifica- 
tions from which some laws might be deduced. With 
this view, all sorts of minerals, preparations, and drugs 
and other things were rubbed with the magnet, and the 
patient was tried with them in the same way as with 
the magnetized water ; and it actually happened that 
all reacted at once upon her more or less in the same 



196 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

Way as the magnetized water ; they attracted the pa- 
tient's hand more strongly or weakly, but in variously 
modified ways. Some produced spasms throughout the 
whole body, others only in the arms, others only in the 
hand, others scarcely caused any effect, although all 
had been equally strongly magnetized. It was evident, 
therefore, that some difference lay in the matter itself, 
and required to be taken into account here." 

Here a new world of wonders opens to the mind of 
the author. He has now found out that this attraction 
exists, not only in magnetized water, but also in drugs 
and other substances without number, for by magnet- 
izing them with a steel magnet, they also attract the 
patient's hand ! But he was destined to look upon 
still greater wonders that beset his path, as the next 
paragraph shows. He says : 

" To investigate this, I now tried to bring the same 
substances into contact with the patient in their natu- 
ral condition, without having been previously mag- 
netized. To my great surprise, they also acted now 
upon the patient with a force which very often yielded 
but little to that which they had exhibited in the mag- 
netized condition. But the action was not always 
accompanied by a solicitation to follow the object ; on 
the contrary, that other effect which had made the pa- 
tient grasp the magnet convulsively in her hand pre- 
sented itself in various gradations of force. The method 
of experiment which I followed here consisted in this. 



LECTURE X. 197 

I first placed the various bodies in the patient's hand 
while in the cataleptic state, and observed the effects, 
and then repeated the same when she was in a state of 
perfect consciousness, out of the catalepsy." 

He has now advanced so far in his investigations 
that he has found out, that not only the magnet and 
other magnetized substances attract, and decidedly 
affect the patient, but that the same substances unmag- 
netizecl, and in their natural condition, attract about as 
well ! He next proceeds to give the result of his exper- 
iments, and places about forty substances in a column 
that will not affect the patient, and about forty that 
will. Now permit me here to say, that I will take 
the whole list of forty substances that he says will pro- 
duce no effect upon the patient, and I will produce all 
the results that he can with his magnet of ninety-pound 
power ! And, further, I will take his forty substances, 
and not only his magnetized water, all of which he says 
will attract, but I will take his most powerful steel 
magnet, and by an impression from my mind upon the 
subject, I will render them all harmless and powerless 
in his hands, so that he may grasp and handle them at 
pleasure without feeling any possible effect from their 
supposed Odic-force. I have produced these experi- 
ments upon hundreds with wood, gold, silver, copper, 
brass, and iron, which are substances set down in his 
category that will not affect the subject. A piece of 
copper, silver, or wood, the size of a penny, I have ren- 



198 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

dered so hot, by merely an impression on his mind, as 
to apparently burn the hand, and force the subject to 
throw it suddenly down. I have replaced the same 
piece, and rendered it so cold and ice-like that he could 
not possibly hold it. The whole was done in his wake- 
ful state. And I have no more doubt than I have of 
my existence, that all of Von Reichenbach's experi- 
ments, with one or two exceptions, were the result of 
his own impressions on his subjects. I have only to 
say I can perform the whole, and even reverse his ex- 
periments by mental impressions. And he should also 
bear in mind, that the longer he experiments with a 
subject, the more perfectly she becomes associated with 
his feelings, habits of thought, and sympathies, by a 
more direct and deep-seated communication. 

Having noticed all the necessary evidence he has 
produced of the existence of his Odic-force, so far as 
the sense of feeling is concerned in the persons upon 
whom he experimented, I now proceed to the examina- 
tion of the evidence he produces of the existence of his 
Odic-force by the faculty of clairvoyant seeing. For 
this purpose he introduces six witnesses on the stand, 
and he sincerely and honestly considers the matter set- 
tled beyond all possible doubt, and that there is no 
room left even for rational controversy, at least so far 
as regards the absolute existence of this invisible power. 

Pages 22, 23, he says : " Through the kindness of 
a surgeon practicing in Vienna, I was introduced, in 



LECTURE X. 199 

March, 1844, to one of his patients, the daughter of 
the tax-collector, Nowotny, a young woman of 25 years 
of age, who had suffered for eight years from increasing 
pains in the head, and from these had fallen into cata- 
leptic attacks, with, alternate tonic and clonic spasms. 
In her, all the exalted intensity of the senses had ap- 
peared, so that she could not bear sun or candle-light, 
saw her chamber as in a twilight in the darkness of the 
night, and clearly distinguished the color of all the fur- 
niture and clothes in it. On this patient the magnet 
acted with extraordinary violence in several ways, and 
she manifested the sensitive peculiarity in every respect 
in such a high degree, that she equaled the true som- 
nambulist (which she herself, however, was not) in 
every particular relating to the acuteness of sensuous 
irritability. 

"At the sight of all this, and in recalling to mind 
that the northern light appeared to be nothing else 
than an electrical phenomenon produced through the 
terrestrial magnetism, the intimate nature of which is 
still inexplicable in so far that no direct emanation of 
light from the magnet is known in physics, I came to 
the idea of making a trial whether a power of vision so ex- 
alted as that of Miss Nowotny might not perhaps per- 
ceive some phenomena of light on the magnet in perfect 
darkness. The possibility did not appear to me so very 
distant, and if it did actually present itself, the key to the 
explanation of the aurora borealis seemed in my hands. 



200 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

" I allowed the father of the girl to make the first 
preparatory experiment in my absence. In order to 
profit by the greatest darkness and the maximum dila- 
tion of the pupil, from the eye having long been accus- 
tomed to the total absence of light, I directed him to 
hold before the patient, in the middle of the night, the 
largest existing magnet, a nine-fold horse-shoe capable 
of supporting about ninety pounds of iron, with the ar- 
mature removed. This was done, and on the following 
day I was informed that the girl had really perceived 
a distinct, continuous luminosity, as long as the mag- 
net was kept open, but disappeared every time the ar- 
mature was placed on it. 

" To convince myself more completely, and study the 
matter more closely, I made preparations to undertake 
the experiment with modifications myself. I devoted 
the following night to this, and selected for it the period 
when the patient had just awakened from a cataleptic 
fit, and consequently was most excitable. The win- 
dows were covered with a superabundance of curtains, 
and the lighted candles removed from the room long 
before the termination of the spasms. 

u The magnet was placed upon the table about ten 
yards from the patient, with both poles directed toward 
the ceiling and then freed from its armature. No one 
present could see in the least, but the girl beheld two 
luminous appearances, one at the extremity of each 
pole of the magnet. When this was closed by the ap- 



LECTURE X. 201 

plication of the armature, they disappeared, and she 
saw nothing more ; when it was opened again, the lights 
reappeared. They seemed to be somewhat stronger at 
the moment of lifting up the armature, then to acquire 
a permanent condition which was weaker. The fiery 
appearance was about equal in size at each pole, and 
without perceptible tendency to mutual connection. 
Close upon the steel from which it streamed, it appeared 
to form a fiery vapor, and this was surrounded by a kind 
of glory of rays. But the rays were not at rest ; they 
became shorter and longer without intermission, and 
exhibited a kind of darting rays and active scintillation, 
which the observer assured us was uncommonly beau- 
tiful." 

The author made other experiments with this lady, 
and with the same success ; but as she gradually re- 
covered her health, the experiments proved less inter- 
esting, till the light from the magnet almost disap- 
peared. This will call to the reader's mind the case I 
stated of Miss Slaughter, of Virginia, in a former Lec- 
ture. She was in a state of entire catalepsy, attended 
with most brilliant sympathetic clairvoyance. She was 
enabled to take impressions from other minds, and even 
from two of her dying friends so as to state the mo- 
ment of their death. This power of receiving impres- 
sions she entirely lost on her recovery, as did Miss 
Nowotny. I moreover stated, that her case was one 
in about fifty million. From the account given of Miss 



202 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

Nowotny's case, it was unquestionably one of a like 
character. 

I make this long extract from Reichenhach's work, so 
that the reader may fairly see and distinctly understand 
the real condition of things previous to, and during 
his first experiment. Reichenbach had conceived the 
idea, that, as the northern light appeared to be noth- 
ing else but an electrical phenomenon produced through 
the terrestrial magnetism," that therefore it might be 
seen streaming from the north and south poles of a 
strong magnet, as from the north and south poles of 
the globe. He gives her father instructions how to pro- 
ceed in the first experiment, and takes his departure. 
But he leaves Miss Nowotny in full communication with 
himself, in communication with her father, and in com- 
munication with the magnet which he had allowed her 
to handle or touch before he left, and which he himself 
had handled. Hence they are all in communication. 
And it is very natural to suppose that he talked the 
matter all over with the parties before he left, as to 
what he expected to discover by the experiment. But 
even admitting it possible that Reichenbach never once 
hinted to them what result he expected from the exper- 
iment, yet he left his unexpressed impressions with all 
his anxiety on the mind of Miss Nowotny. She would 
feel and read the whole. Indeed, if he had only sent the 
magnet to her by another person, yet as Reichenbach 
had handled it, she could have obtained through the 



LECTURE X. 203 

magnet alone a communication with him, and read his 
mind and feelings in all their naked force. Hence it 
is not only evident, but positively certain, that she saw 
those flames issuing from the poles of the magnet 
through an impression from Reichenbach's mind, and 
not in reality. Of this there can be no possible doubt, 
because he proceeds to the experiment to ascertain the 
existence of his Odic-force streaming from the poles of 
the magnet, so as to enable him to account for the phe- 
nomenon of the northern light. After witnessing the 
force with which Miss Nowotny grasped the magnet, 
he plainly says : 

" At the sight of all this, and recalling to mind that 
the northern light appeared to be nothing else but an 
electrical phenomenon produced through the terrestrial 
magnetism, the intimate nature of which is still inex- 
plicable, in so far that no direct emanation of light 
from the magnet is known in physics, I came to the 

IDEA OF MAKING A TRIAL WHETHER A POWER OF VIS- 
ION SO EXALTED AS THAT OF MlSS NoWOTNY MIGHT 
NOT PERHAPS PERCEIVE SOME PHENOMENA OF LIGHT 
ON THE MAGNET IN PERFECT DARKNESS. THE POSSI- 
BILITY DID NOT APPEAR TO ME SO VERY DISTANT, AND 
IF IT DID ACTUALLY PRESENT ITSELF, THE KEY TO 
THE EXPLANATION OF THE AURORA BOREALIS SEEMED 
IN MY HANDS." 

With this idea fixed in his mind, to discover the 
cause, and explain the phenomena of the aurora bore- 



204 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

alis, he proceeded to the experiments ; and what is the 
result ? The result is, that she sees the northern 
light, and I may say the southern also, streaming from 
the two poles of the [magnet corresponding with the 
poles of the globe ! The above experiment and its 
successful result I admit to be true, as the distinguished 
author has candidly stated. When the armature wa3 
removed she saw the flames of the Odic-force issue 
from the poles of the magnet ! and when the armature 
was replaced the flames vanished. How perfectly nat- 
ural that this was the result of an impression from the 
operator's mind ! He knew that when the armature 
was removed the magnetism escaped, and in time the 
magnet would lose its power. He knew that the ar- 
mature shut it off, and prevented, in a good measure, 
its escape, and she took the same impression. And 
instead of an Odic-force being seen to escape from the 
poles of the magnet, would it not be a more philosoph- 
ical conclusion, in case any thing could in reality be 
seen, that it was the magnetism itself, which we know 
continually escapes from the poles when the armature is 
removed ? And what is magnetism but galvanism 
imprisoned in steel 1 And what are either, but a cer- 
tain disposition of electricity ? And what is electricity 
but the original and primal power of matter, and be- 
yond which there is no other power except the power 
of mind'? 

His next witness is Angelica Sturmann, nineteen 



LECTURE X. 205 

years of age, suffering from tubercular affection of the 
lungs, and long subject to somnambulism in its slighter 
stages, with attacks of tetanus and cataleptic fits. 
The author says (page 26) — " The influence of the 
magnet displayed itself so powerfully in her, after a 
few experiments, that she far surpassed Miss Nowotny 
in sensitiveness. She also saw a flame flash over the 
magnet, the moment the armature was removed, of a 
white color mingled with red and blue. * * * At the 
same time I had attained my principal aim ; a confir- 
mation of Miss Nowotny's statements respecting the 
luminosity over the magnet was obtained. It had now 
been seen by a second person suffering from quite a 
different disease, without any communication from the 
first." Here again our author errs. Her disease was 
the same as Miss Nowotny's, with the exception of the 
complaint on her lungs. They both had cataleptic 
fits, and tetanus (lock-jaw) is frequently a result of the 
spasms. He also errs in saying, that these two young 
women had no communication with each other. Reich- 
enbach, it appears, never once dreamed that he car- 
ried about with him that communication from one to 
the other wherever he went. But in case he did not 
keep the subjects en rapport with each other, yet the 
same impression of his own bosom, with but little va- 
riation, was presented to each of his witnesses, and in 
it they saw and read the beauty, splendor, and power 
of his Odic-force ! 



206 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

The author says that the third witness was a " lad 
about eighteen years old, suffering from intermittent 
spasms, produced by fright and ill-usage. When I 
approached him with the magnet, he at once spoke of 
fire and flames appearing before him, which returned 
every time I removed the armature." But the author 
states, that the boy was too ignorant to carry on with 
him any profitable experiment, and therefore leaves him. 

Page 27. His fourth witness was Miss Maria Maix, 
twenty-five years old, who also saw this light, but of 
course through the mind of her operator. His fifth 
witness (same page) was Miss Barbara Reichel, a true 
somnambulist, subject also to talking in her sleep and 
wandering in her dreams. She saw the flames issue 
more powerfully than any of the witnesses who had 
preceded her. She even saw them slightly with the 
armature on the magnet, and very powerfully and beau- 
tifully with it off. The whole surface of the magnet 
also appeared in a glow ! His description of this lady's 
case, and the experiments he performed with her at his 
own residence, is certainly very interesting. 

Page 33. Here he introduces his sixth and last 
witness in the present case. Miss Maria Atzmanns- 
dorfer (twenty-six years of age) is the name. She has 
an affection in the head, with spasms and sleep-walking, 
and is sensitive in a high degree. The author says : 
" She saw the magnetic poles flame in a most lively 
manner. She described the luminous appearance as 



LECTURE X. 207 

still larger than Miss Reichel, from the nine-layered 
horse-shoe, more than twice the height, and gave an 
exactly similar account of the light, the colors, and 
mobility of the flame. Like her, she saw the whole 
magnet luminous, and its entire surface clothed with a 
delicate light. She makes the sixth witness." 

He now sums up the testimony, page 84, and remarks : 
" With the exception of an acquaintance between 
Miss Maix and Miss Reichel, none of the witnesses 
had any communication with each other, or did even 
know one another, but lived leagues apart, and in my 
innumerable experiments never contradicted one an- 
other, much less themselves." Here we perceive that 
the learned author is entirely unacquainted with the 
nature of clairvoyant communication between different 
individuals, even though hundreds of miles apart. And 
even admitting that they had no such communication 
with each other, yet he is entirely unacquainted with 
the nature of mental impressions that were communi- 
cated from his own mind to each of his witnesses, and 
hence, like Bellerophon, he carries his own indictment 
and condemns himself. He bears the communication 
in his own bosom, and condemns his own testimony in 
the witnesses he has brought forward. On this I offer 
no more, as I have fully noticed elsewhere the different 
modes of obtaining communication. 

We have now before us, in substance, the whole evi- 
dence in the case. And upon the foundation of th ; 



208 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

clairvoyant testimony he builds the whole splendid su- 
perstructure of his theory. It rests wholly on the 
existence of his Odic-force. Strike away this founda- 
tion and the whole superstructure falls. This point 
now claims our candid consideration. 

There is one important point in the history of the 
evidence that claims attention. It is this : As he ad- 
vances with his experiments from one witness to another, 
the Odic-force gradually increases to their minds in the 
power, beauty, and splendor of its appearance, until 
the subject can see, not only the whole magnet in a 
glow, and the flame issuing a little even with the arma- 
ture on, but with the armature removed ; the last wit- 
ness saw the flames blaze up from the poles of the 
magnet more than twice as high as the first witness ! 
Now, on the principle that all this was produced on the 
minds of the witnesses by an impression from his own 
mind, how perfectly natural it is to understand and 
explain the whole ! Before he tried his first experiment, 
though his confidence was strong that such light might 
be seen, yet he had some lingering idea that the exper- 
iment might possibly fail. Still, as the northern and 
southern lights of the globe were impressed on his 
mind, and associated with the idea in his imagination 
that they might flame from the corresponding poles of 
the magnet, and be seen by the extraordinary power 
of vision that he was consulting, clearly show the im- 
pression this would make on the mind of Miss Nowotny. 



LECTURE X. 209 

After the first successful experiment he is elated, and 
nis confidence is strengthened. Under this excitement 
the second experiment is performed, and perceived by 
his subject with increased beauty, and his mind is con- 
firmed. In this condition he confidently marches up to 
the third witness with magnet in hand, removes the 
armature, and the lad complains of fire and flames, but 
is too ignorant to explain himself. As he passes on in 
his wonderful career of rapture, with worlds of science 
opening before him, he becomes more and more con- 
firmed and positive ; doubt recedes, and his growing 
enthusiasm is caught by his subjects, and they accord- 
ingly portray the growing glory and increasing splendor 
of the Odic-force ! But pause, reader, and remember 
that the whole of what these witnesses saw was not the 
Odic-force, but the reflected splendor of what only ex- 
isted in Von Reichenbach's own brilliant imagination. 
They saw by an impression the fanciful conceptions of 
his own mind, and most sincerely believed the whole 
vision to be real ! 

If this Odic-force does, indeed, exist inherent in 
matter, and can be seen issuing in flames of glory from 
the poles of the magnet, why, then, have not the thou- 
sands of clairvoyants, somnambulists, and cataleptic 
persons seen it 1 Magnets without number have been 
handled and examined by them in light and in dark- 
ness, but no one has seen a single ray of this brilliant 
light emanating from them till our author made his 



210 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

witnesses see it ! I have experimented upon them with 
magnets, and even made them pass into the mesmeric 
state by holding a magnet in their hand, with their 
eyes fixed upon its poles, but they saw no light. I have 
uniformly carried a magnet and a complete galvanic 
apparatus with me for years, when lecturing upon the 
philosophy of mesmerism — I have experimented with 
these before thousands, in about all parts of the United 
States, and also upon the mesmeric and psychological 
subjects, and yet no one among them has ever seen this 
Odic-force till our author made his patients see it. I 
ask again, why is this so, if it exists inherent in mat- 
ter, and flames from the magnet with such brilliancy 
before the clairvoyant eye ? If an ignorant boy saw it 
in an instant when Reichenbach approached him and 
removed the armature, why then have not other clair- 
voyants seen it, when I have, hundreds of times, ap- 
proached them with a strong magnet in hand 1 The 
only rational answer that can be given to these queries 
is, because neither myself nor others ever conceived 
the idea of Odic flames issuing from the poles of a mag- 
net, and hence no such mental impression was ever 
communicated to these subjects. Von Reichenbach 
first conceived the idea, and hence his six witnesses 
all saw it ! The experimenters in this country and in 
England have read his book, caught the idea, and many 
have believed and cherished it. And now all their 
clairvoyant subjects see it. Somnambulists see it, psy- 



LECTURE X. 211 

cliological subjects see it, and at length Judge Edmonds 
sees it. 

The following quotation, page 121, furnishes evidence 
how far a great and enlightened mind may be led into 
error when once it diverges from the great highway of 
reality into those paths where no inductive philosophy 
can accompany it. He says : " I allowed Miss Reichel 
to become used to the feeling of my hand, and then 
went out into the sunshine. After ten minutes had 
elapsed, during which I had exposed myself on all sides 
to the sun's rays, I went back and gave her my hand. 
She was much astonished at the rapid alteration in the 
great increase of force which she experienced in it, the 
cause of which was unknown to her. The sunshine 
had evidently impregnated me in exactly the same way 
as the magnet had charged the body of a man, and in 
other experiments my own person. " *•%.'* "After 
I had given up the experiments with the sun's rays on 
Miss Maix, the girls of her neighborhood amused them- 
selves with them. When I revisited her, they told me 
that the patient had found an iron key, which they had 
laid in the sunshine, after a short interval magnetic, 
a nd as strongly as a magnetic rod which they possessed. 
It did not attract iron, but Miss Maix declared that it 
acted upon her exactly like a magnet." 

On page 127 he says : " When I arranged a metallic 
plate, half a yard square in extent, so that I could at 
pleasure bring it into the moonshine and shade, con- 



212 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED 

nected a long wire with it, and carried this through the 
keyhole down the darkened stairs into the hands of 
Miss Reichel, who remained there, she saw, in every 
instance, as often as I let the moon's rays fall upon it, 
a slender flame, scarcely as thick as one's finger, per- 
fectly straight, to a height often inches, and disappear 
after a short space, as often as I removed the plate from 
the moonlight. From the foregoing, it follows that 
moonlight is not all moonshine." 

In reply, I have only to say, that his theory will all end 
at last in moonshine. Here Miss Reichel sees the same 
Odic-force from moonshine that she saw from the mag- 
net ! and he further states, that the sensation of the 
moon's rays produced upon her a gentle warmth, the 
same as any substance that had been exposed to the 
sun's rays, and by this course of procedure he finds his 
Odic-force in every thing throughout nature ! But who 
is so blind that he can not perceive in all these experi- 
ments the mere impression of his own mind transmitted 
by sympathy to the mind of a sensitive and impressible 
clairvoyant 1 

It will be perceived by every candid and unbiased 
reader, that he has not produced a single scrap of evi- 
dence to prove the existence of his Odic-force. His 
supposed testimony is weighed in the balance and found 
wanting, and it is utterly futile for any man to attempt 
to sustain Reichenbach's position by such testimony as 
he has introduced into court. And until he can pro- 



LECTURE X. 213 

duce something in the shape of tangible evidence to 
prove the existence of his Odic-force, then the argument, 
as regards his theory built upon it, must stop. And 
though there is the display of talent, yes, the energy of 
a powerful mind, which carries along with it the evi- 
dence of an intimate acquaintance with nature and her 
operations, yet as his premises are false, so far as re- 
gards his Odic-force, his conclusions are therefore false, 
and his whole system tumbles into ruin for want of a 
foundation upon which to stand. 

I first read his work about eight months ago, and 
since then I have tested his positions fairly. And if 
the arguments I have offered are not sufficient to settle 
this point, I will now add that I have tested his experi- 
ments upon two excellent mesmeric clairvoyants, one 
somnambulist, and five persons in the electro-psycho- 
logical state. I have made them see the flames issuing 
from the poles of a magnet, of only one-pound power, 
as high as the ceiling of a room. I have then changed 
the scene and made them see two waterspouts stream- 
ing from its poles to the ceiling ! I have then turned 
those two waterspouts into two serpents, each ten feet 
long, touching their heads to the ceiling ! Changing 
again the scene, I have caused them to see, by an im- 
pression on their minds, two beautiful rose bushes grow 
out of the poles of the magnet, and covered with the 
sweetest roses in full and life-like bloom, and a rain- 
bow arching from bush to bush. I have made them 



214 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

see the Odic-flames, in equal splendor, flash up from a 
cane in all the beauties of the rainbow 1 I have con- 
vulsed their hands, arms, and whole bodies, by their 
simply taking hold of a cane or a pocket-handkerchief, 
and have rendered, in an instant, the magnet powerless 
in their hands. And all these experiments not only 
my friends, but tens of thousands who have heard me 
lecture, and seen me experiment on both psychological 
and mesmeric subjects, know that I am able to perform 
by an impression on their minds. I can show them 
the moon, when it is on the opposite side of the globe, 
through the ceiling and roof of the hall, make it appear 
like an Odic-force globe of light, bring it down into the 
hall, set the audience on fire, and make the subject 
hasten to extinguish it ! This I can do upon a psy- 
chological subject by the impression of a word, and 
upon a good mesmeric subject by a mental impression, 
without speaking a word, and yet the whole would be 
but moonshine, and less than moonshine, for no moon 
would be there ! 

I have now given the subject of the spirit-manifesta- 
tions all that consideration which its growing import- 
ance demands. And as some of its advocates are 
inclined to adopt the Odic-force of Von Reichenbach 
as one of the physical agents employed by spirits to 
produce them, and as Judge Edmonds has already 
seen it, and thus lent it the sanction and popularity of 
his own standing and name, so I have hastily given 



LECTURE X. 215 

this also a brief but candid notice. And I might here 
remark how much more elevated, noble, and sublime it 
would be for the believers in the spirit-manifestations 
to claim the lightnings of heaven — the electro-magnetic 
power by which the Creator moves this globe and all 
worlds in immensity ; by which He carries on the mul- 
tifarious operations of animal and vegetable phenom- 
ena, and by which He stirs the universe, as the agent 
by which spirits also operate on and move dead matter. 
I am aware that I have taken a middle position, ex- 
posed to a cross-fire from both armies. The skeptics, 
as regards the spirit-manifestations, on the one hand, 
will condemn me for advocating and defending the sin- 
cerity and honesty of its mediums and believers, and 
these, on the other hand, will condemn me for not be- 
lieving more. But I have endeavored to do my duty 
faithfully, and to render honor and justice to whom 
honor and justice were due, and I cheerfully submit the 
whole to the tribunal and scrutiny of public opinion. 
And may God bless all my fellow-men. 



Note. — Dr. Abercrombie gives the following account of a dream of the Eev. J. 
Wilkinson, dissenting minister at Weymouth, England, about his mother, and 
what she at the same hour witnessed. It is given in the Eev. gentleman's own 
words: 

1 One night, soon after I was in bed, I fell asleep, and dreamed I was going to 
London. I thought it would not be much out of my way to go through Glouces- 
tershire, and call upon my friends there. Accordingly I set out, but remembered 
nothing that happened on the way, till I came to my father's house, when I went 
to the front door, and tried to open it, but found it fast I then went to the back 
door, which I opened, and went in ; but fir ding all the family were in bed, I went 



216 SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS EXAMINED. 

across the rooms only, went np stairs, and entered the chamber where my father 
and mother were in bed. As I went to that side of the bed in which my father 
lay, I found him asleep, or thought he was so; then I went to the* other side, and 
just turned the foot of the bed. I found my mother awake, to whom I said these 
words : ' Mother, I am going a long journey, and I am come to bid you good-bye.' 
Upon which she answered me in a fright, ' dear son, thou art dead !' With this 
I awoke, and took no notice of it, more than a common dream, only it appeared 
to me very perfect, as some dreams will. But in a few days after, as soon as a 
letter could reach me, I received one by post from my father, upon the receipt of 
which I was a little surprised, and concluded something extraordinary must have 
happened, as it was but a little before I had a letter from my friends, and all were 
well. Upon opening it, I was more surprised still, for my father addressed me as 
though I was dead, desiring me, if alive, to write immediately ; but if the letter 
should find me living, they concluded I should not live long, and gave this as the 
reason of their fears : That on such a night, naming it, after they were in bed, my 
father asleep, and my mother awake, she heard some one try to open the front 
door; but finding it fast, he went to the back door, which he opened, came in, 
and came directly through the rooms up stairs, and she perfectly hnew it to be 
my step. I came to her bedside, and spoke to her these words : ■ Mother, I am 
going a long journey, and am come to bid you good-bye.' Upon which she an- 
swered me in a fright, ' dear son, thou art dead !' which were the very words 
and circumstances of my dream; but she heard nothing more, and saw nothing; 
neither did I in my dream, as it was quite dark. Upon this she awoke my father, 
and told him what had passed ; but he endeavored to appease her, by persuading 
her it was only a dream ; she insisted it was no dream, for that she was as per- 
fectly awake as ever she was, and had not the least inclination to sleep since she 
had been in bed. From these circumstances I am apt to think it was the very 
same instant when my dream happened, though the distance between us was a 
hundred miles ; but of this I can not speak positively. This occurred while I 
was at the academy at Ottery, Devon, in the year 1754, and at this distance of time 
it is still fresh upon my mind. I have since had frequent opportunities of talking 
over the affair with my mother, and the whole was as fresh upon her mind as it 
was upon mine. I have often thought that her sensations as to this matter wero 
stronger than mine. What some may think strange, I can not remember that 
any thing remarkable happened hereupon. This is only a plain, simple narrative 
of a matter of fact." 

Here is a case as wonderful as can be produced in the whole history of the 
spirit-manifestations, and yet it was only a dream, the intelligence of which was 
responded to by a mother in the waking state 100 miles distant. 



APPENDIX. 



217 



APPENDIX. 



It is said that there is something so strange and in- 
comprehensible in the spirit-manifestations, that it is 
impossible to account for them without referring the 
whole to the agency of departed spirits. Future events 
are foretold — past secret transactions are disclosed — • 
the thoughts of the heart are read and revealed, and 
an intelligence displayed beyond that which belongs to 
the known operations and powers of the human mind, 
and, therefore, it must be spirits. To show the incon- 
sistency of such a conclusion, I append the following 
selections, containing records of events of the most sur- 
prising character and well authenticated, and which 
certainly equal, if not surpass, any thing connected 
with the spirit-manifestations, and yet they belong to 
certain mysterious operations of the human mind, and 
not to the influence of departed spirits. 

Extract from Mr. Wesley^s Works , vol. x., p. 163. 

" A little before the conclusion of the late war in 
Flanders, one who came from thence gave us a very 

10 



218 » APPENDIX. 

strange relation. I knew not what judgment to form 
of this, but waited till John Haime should come over, 
of whose veracity I could no more doubt than of his 
understanding. The account he gave was this : c Jon- 
athan Pyrah was a member of our society in Flanders. 
I knew him some years, and knew him to be a man of 
unblameable character. One day he was summoned to 
appear before the board of general officers. One of 
them said, " What is this which we hear of you? We 
hear you are turned prophet, and that you foretell the 
downfall of the bloody house of Bourbon, and the 
haughty house of Austria. "We should be glad if you 
were a real prophet, and if your prophecies came true. 
But what sign do you give to convince us you are so, 
and that your predictions will come to pass?" He 
readily answered, " Gentlemen, I give you a sign. 
To-morrow, at twelve o'clock, you shall have such a 
storm of thunder and lightning as you never had before 
since you came into Flanders. I give you a second 
sign : As little as any of you expect any such thing, as 
little appearance of it as there is now, you shall have 
a general engagement with the French within three 
days. I give you a third sign : I shall be ordered to 
advance in the first line. If I am a false prophet, I 
shall be shot dead at the first discharge. But if I am 
a true prophet, I shall only receive a musket-ballon 
the calf of my left leg." At twelve, the next day, there 
Was such thunder and lightning as they never had be- 



APPENDIX. 219 

fore in Flanders. On the third day, contrary to all 
expectation, was the general battle of Fontenoy. He 
was ordered to advance in the first line, and at the 
very first discharge he received a musket-ball in the 
calf of his left leg.' » 

Swedenborg's Clairvoyance Independent of 
Mesmerism. 

Kant gives a relation concerning Madame Von Marse- 
ville, and continues thus : 

" But the following occurrence appears to me to have 
the greatest weight of proof, and to set the assertion 
respecting Swedenborg's extraordinary gift out of all 
possibility of doubt. In the year 1759, when M. de 
Swedenborg, toward the end of February, on Saturday, 
at 4 o'clock, p. m., arrived at Gottenburg from Eng- 
land, Mr. William Costel invited him to his house, 
together with a party of fifteen persons. About 6 
o'clock, M. de Swedenborg went out, and after a short 
interval, returned to the company quite pale and 
alarmed. He said that a dangerous fire had just bro- 
ken out in Stockholm, at the Sudermalm (Gottenburg 
is about three hundred miles from Stockholm), and that 
it was spreading very fast. He was restless, and went 
out often ; he said that the house of one of his friends, 
whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his 
own was in danger. At 8 o'clock, after he had been 
out again, he joyfully exclaimed, ' Thank God ! the 



220 APPENDIX. 

fire is extinguished the third door from my house.' 
This news occasioned great commotion through, the 
whole city, and particularly among the company in 
which he was. It was announced to the Governor the 
same evening. On the Sunday morning, Swedenborg 
was sent for by the Governor, who questioned him con- 
cerning the disaster. Swedenborg described the fire 
precisely, how it had begun, in what manner it had 
ceased, and how long it had continued. On the same 
day, the news was spread through the city, and as the 
Governor had thought it worthy of attention, the con- 
sternation was considerably increased ; because many 
were in trouble on account of their friends and property, 
which might have been involved in the disaster. 

u On the Monday evening a messenger arrived at 
Gottenburg, who was dispatched during the time of the 
fire. In the letters brought by him, the fire was de- 
scribed precisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg. 
On the Tuesday morning, the royal courier arrived at 
the Governor's with the melancholy intelligence of the 
fire, of the loss which it had occasioned, and of the 
houses it had damaged and ruined, not in the least dif- 
fering from that which Swedenborg had given immedi- 
ately after it had ceased, for the fire was extinguished 
at eight o'clock. 

" What can be brought forward against the authen- 
ticity of this occurrence ? My friend, who wrote this to 
me, has not only examined the circumstances of this 



APPENDIX. 221 

extraordinary case at Stockholm, but also about two 
months ago, at Gottenburg, where he is acquainted 
with the most respectable houses, and where he could 
obtain the most authentic and complete information ; 
as the greatest part of the inhabitants who are still 
alive were witnesses to the memorable occurrence. 
u I am, with profound reverence, etc., 

" Emanuel Kant. 

" Kcenigsburg, Aug. 10, 1768." 

Zsckokke's Divination.* 

" There was, however, no want of agreeable society 
in my new retirement — either that of some select fam- 
ilies and individuals in the city, or old friends and 
acquaintances of the Union, who never forgot me when 
they passed, or in visits from travelers, allured by the 
love of wandering into Switzerland, or blown hither by 
the wind of destiny. I never failed to receive such 
visitors with all due honor,- having learned from expe- 
rience how gladly in traveling we make use of such 
opportunities to fill up vacant moments, in order to 
acquire information, to enrich the harvest of remem- 
brance. I, therefore, submitted to my fate with resig- 
nation. If this kind of virtue became burdensome at 
times, it was rewarded at others by making the ac- 



* He is well known as an author, statesman, philosopher, and 
reformer. 



222 APPENDIX. 

quaintance of remarkable persons, or by tne opportu- 
nities it yielded for the exercise of a singular kind of 
prophetic gift which I called my ' inward sight,' but 
which has ever been enigmatical to me. I am almost 
afraid to speak of this, not because I am afraid to be 
thought superstitious, but that I may thereby strength- 
en such feelings in others. And yet it may be an addi- 
tion to our stock of soul- experiences, and, therefore, I 
will confess ! 

" It is well known that the judgment we not seldom 
form at the first glance of persons hitherto unknown, 
is more correct than that which is the result of longer 
acquaintance. The first impression that through some 
instinct of the soul attracts or repels us with strangers, 
is afterward weakened or destroyed by custom, or by 
different appearances. We speak in such cases of 
sympathies or antipathies, and perceive these effects 
frequently among children, to whom experience in hu- 
man character is wholly wanting. Others are incred- 
ulous on this point, and have recourse rather to the art 
of physiognomy. Now for my own case. 

" It has happened to me, sometimes, on my first 
meeting with strangers, as I listened silently to their 
discourse, that their former life, with many trifling cir- 
cumstances therewith connected, or frequently some 
particular scene in that life, has passed quite involun- 
tarily, and, as it were, dream-like, yet perfectly dis- 
tinct, before me. During this time I usually feel so 



APPENDIX. 223 

entirely absorbed in the contemplation of the stranger 
life, that, at last, I no longer see clearly the face of 
the unknown wherein I undesignedly read, nor dis- 
tinctly hear, the voices of the speakers, which before 
served, in some measure, as a commentary to the text 
of their features. For a long time I held such visions 
as delusions of the fancy, and the more so as they 
showed me even the dress and motions of the actors, 
rooms, furniture, and other accessories. By way of 
jest, I once, in a family circle at Kirchberg, related the 
secret history of a seamstress who had just left the 
room and the house. I had never seen her before in 
my life ; people were astonished and laughed, but were 
not to be persuaded that I did not previously know the 
relations of which I spoke, for what I had uttered was 
the literal truth ; I, on my part, was no less aston- 
ished that my dream-pictures were confirmed by the 
reality. I became more attentive to the subject, and 
when propriety admitted it, I would relate to those 
whose life thus passed before me the subject of my 
vision, that I might thereby obtain confirmation or ref- 
utation of it. It was invariably ratified, not without 
consternation on their part.* I myself had less con- 

* u « What demon inspires yon ? Must I again believe in pos- 
session ?' exclaimed the spirituel Joliann von Riga, when, in the 
first hour of our acquaintance, I related his past life to him, with 
the avowed object of learning whether or no I deceived myself. 
We speculated long on the enigma, but even his penetration could 
not solve it." 



224 APPENDIX. 

fidence than any one in this mental jugglery. So of- 
ten as I revealed my visionary gifts to any new person, 
I regularly expected to hear the answer : ' It was not 
so.' I felt a secret shudder when my auditors replied 
that it was true, or when their astonishment betrayed 
my accuracy before they spoke. Instead of many, 
I will mention one example, which pre-eminently as- 
tounded me. One fair day, in the city of Waldshut, 
I entered an inn (the Vine), in company with two 
young student-foresters : we were tired with rambling 
through the woods. We supped with a numerous so- 
ciety at the table d'hote, where the guests were making 
very merry with the peculiarities and eccentricities of 
the Swiss, with Mesmer's magnetism, Lavater's phys- 
iognomy, etc., etc. One of my companions, whose na- 
tional pride was wounded by their mockery, begged 
me to make some reply, particularly to a handsome 
young man who sat opposite us, and who had al 
lowed himself extraordinary license. This man's for- 
mer life was at that moment presented to my mind. I 
turned to him and asked whether he would answer me 
candidly if I related to him some of the most secret 
passages of his life, I knowing as little of him person- 
ally as he did of me. That would be going a little 
further, I thought, than Lavater did with his physiog- 
nomy. He promised, if I were correct in my informa- 
tion, to admit it frankly. I then related what my vis- 
ion had shown me and the whole company were made 



APPENDIX. 225 

acquainted with the private history of the young mer- 
chant ; his school years, his youthful errors, and last- 
ly, with a fault committed in reference to the strong 
box of his principal. I described to him the uninhab- 
ited room with whitened walls, where, to the right of 
the brown door, on a table, stood a black money-box, 
etc., etc. A dead silence prevailed during the whole 
narration, which I alone occasionally interrupted by in- 
quiring whether I spoke the truth. The startled young 
man confirmed every particular, and even, what I had 
scarcely expected, the last mentioned. Touched by 
his candor, I shook hands with him over the table, and 
said no more. He asked my name, which I gave him, 
and we remained together talking till past midnight. 
He is probably still living ! 

" I can well explain to myself how a person of lively 
imagination may form, as in a romance, a correct pic- 
ture of the actions and passions of another person, of 
a certain character, under certain circumstances. But 
whence came those trifling accessories, which nowise 
conceited me, and in relation to people for the most 
part indifferent to me, with whom I neither had, nor 
desired to have, any connection ? Or, was the whole 
matter a constantly recurring accident ? Or, had my 
auditor, perhaps, when I related the particulars of his 
former life, very different views to give of the whole, 
although in his first surprise, and misled by some re- 
semblances, he had mistaken them for the same ? 
10* 



226 APPENDIX. 

And yet, impelled by this very doubt, I had several 
times given myself trouble to speak of the most insig- 
nificant things which my waking dream had revealed to 
me. I shall not say another word on this singular gift 
of vision, of which I can not say it was ever of the 
slightest service ; it manifested itself rarely, quite in- 
dependently of my will, and several times in refer- 
ence to persons whom I cared little to look through. 
Neither am I the only person in possession of this 
power. On an excursion I once made with two of my 
sons, I met with an old Tyrolese who carried oranges 
and lemons about the country, in a house of public en- 
tertainment, in Lower Hanenstein, one of the passes of 
the Jura. He fixed his eyes on me for some time, then 
mingled in the conversation, and said that he knew me, 
although he knew me not, and went to relate what I had 
done and striven to do in former times, to the conster- 
nation of the country people present, and the great ad- 
miration of my children, who were diverted to find an- 
other person gifted like their father. How the old lemon 
merchant came by his knowledge he could explain nei- 
ther to me nor to himself ; he seemed, nevertheless, to 
value himself somewhat upon his mysterious wisdom." 
- — Autobiography of Zschokke, pp. 169-172. 

The following well-authenticated account is from 
La Harpe's Posthumous Memoirs, Paris, 1806, vol. 
i., p. 62 : 



APPENDIX. 227 

" It appears but as yesterday ; yet, nevertheless, it 
was at the beginning of the year 1788. We were 
dining with one of our brethren at the Academy — a 
man of considerable wealth and genius. The compa- 
ny was numerous and diversified — courtiers, lawyers, 
academicians, etc. ; and, according to custom, there 
had been a magnificent dinner. At dessert, the wines 
of Malvoisin and Constantia added to the gayety of the 
guests that sort of liberty which is sometimes forgetful 
of bon ton — we had arrived in the world just at that 
time when any thing was permitted that would raise a 
laugh. Chamfort had read to us some- of his impious 
and libertine tales, and even the great ladies had lis- 
tened without having recourse to their fans. From 
this arose a deluge of jests against religion. One 
quoted a tirade from the Pucelle ; another recalled the 
philosophic lines of Diderot — 

' Et des boyaux du dernier pr^tre, 
Serrez le cou du dernier roi,' 

for the sake of applauding them. A third rose, and, 
holding his glass in his hand, exclaimed, i Yes, gen- 
tlemen, I AM AS SURE THAT THERE IS NO GoD, AS I 

am sure that Homer is a fool ;' and, in truth, he 
was as sure of the one as of the other. The conver- 
sation became more serious ; much admiration was ex- 
pressed on the revolution, which Voltaire had effected, 
and it was agreed that it was his first claim to the rep- 
utation he enjoyed : he had given the prevailing tone to 



228 APPENDIX. 

his age, and had been read in the ante-chamber as well 
as in the drawing-room. One of the guests told us, while 
bursting with laughter, that his hairdresser, while pow- 
dering his hair, had said to him — ' Do you observe, sir, 

THAT ALTHOUGH I AM BUT A POOR, MISERABLE BARBER, 
1 HAVE NO MORE RELIGION THAN ANY OTHER.' We 

concluded that the revolution must soon be consummat- 
ed — that it was indispensable that superstition and fa- 
naticism should give place to philosoplry, and we be- 
gan to calculate the probability of the period when this 
should be, and which of the present company should live 
to see the reign of reason. The oldest complained 
that they could scarcely flatter themselves with the 
hope ; the younger rejoiced that they might entertain 
this very probable expectation ; and they congratu- 
lated the Academy especially for having prepared this 
great work, and for having been the great rallying- 
point, the center, and the prime mover of the liberty 
of thought. 

" One only of the guests had not taken part in all 
the joyousness of this conversation, and had even gen- 
tly and cheerfully checked our splendid enthusiasm. 
This was Cazotte, an amiable and original man, but 
unhappily infatuated with the reveries of the illumin- 
ati. He spoke, and with the most serious tone. 
' Gentlemen,' said he, c be satisfied ; you will all see 
this great and sublime revolution, which you so much 
desire. You know that I am a little inclined to proph^ 



APPENDIX. 229 

esy: I repeat, you will see it.' He was answered by 
the common rejoinder : ' One need not be a con- 
juror to see that.' \ Be it so ; but perhaps one 
must be a little more than a conjuror for what re- 
mains for me to tell you. Do 3-0 u know what will be 
the consequence of this revolution — what will be the 
consequence to ail of you, and what will be the immedi- 
ate result — the well-established effect — the thoroughly- 
recognized consequence to all of you who are here pres- 
ent V c Ah!' said Condorcet, with his insolent and 
half-suppressed smile, ' let us hear — a philosopher is 
not sorry to encounter a prophet.' i You, Monsieur 
de Condorcet, you will yield up your last breath on the 
floor of a dungeon ; you will die from poison, which 
you will have taken in order to escape from execution 
— from poison which the happiness of that time will 
oblige you to carry about your person.' 

" At first astonishment was most marked ; but it 
was soon recollected that the good Cazotte is liable to 
dreaming, though apparently wide awake, and a hearty 
laugh is the consequence. ' Monsieur Cazotte, the re- 
lation which you give us is not so agreeable as your 
Diable Amoureux' — (a novel of Cazotte's). 

" ' But what diable has put into your head this pris- 
on, and this poison, and these executioners 1 What 
can all these have in common with philosophy and the 
reign of reason V c This is exactly what I say to you ; 
it is in the name of philosophy — of humanity — of lib- 



230 APPENDIX. 

erty ; it is under the reign of reason that it will hap- 
pen to you thus, to end your career ; and it will in- 
deed be the reign of reason ; for then she will have 
her temples, and, indeed, at that time, there will be no 
other temples in France than the temples of reason.' 
i By my truth,' said Chamfort, with a sarcastic smile, 
'you will not be one of the priests of those temples.' 
c I do not hope it ; but you, Monsieur de Chamfort, 
who will be one, and most worthy to be so, you will 
open your veins with twenty-two cuts of a razor, and 
yet you will not die till some months afterward.' 
They looked at each other, and laughed again. i You, 
Monsieur Vicq d'Azir, you will not open your own 
veins, but you will cause yourself to be bled, six times 
in one day, during a paroxysm of the gout, in order to 
make more sure of your end, and you' will die in the 
night. You, Monsieur de Nicolai, you will die upon 
the scaffold ; you, M. Bailly, on the scaffold ; you, 
Monsieur de Malesherbes, on the scaffold.' I Ah ! 
God be thanked,' exclaimed Roucher, ' it seems that 
Monsieur has no eye but for the Academy ; . of it 
he has just made a terrible execution, and I, thank 

Heaven ' ' You ! you also will die upon the 

scaffold.' ' Oh, what an admirable guesser,' was ut- 
tered on all sides ; 4 he has sworn to exterminate us 
all.' • No, it is not I who have sworn it.' ' But shall 
we then be conquered by the Turks or the Tartars 1 
Yet again .....' ' Not at all ; I have already told 



APPENDIX. 231 

you, you will then be governed only by philosophy — 
only by reason. They who will thus treat you will 
be all philosophers — will always have upon their lips 
the self-same phrases which 3 r ou have been putting forth 
for the last hour — will repeat all your maxims — -and 
will quote, as you have done, the verses of Diderot, 
and from La Pucelle.' They then whispered among 
themselves. ' You see that he is gone mad ;' for he 
preserved all this time the most serious and solemn 
manner. ' Do you not see that he is joking ? and you 
know that, in the character of his jokes, there is al- 
ways much of the marvelous.' ' Yes,' replied Cham- 
fort, ' but his marvelousness is not cheerful ; it savors 
too much of the gibbet — and when will all this hap- 
pen V ' Six years will not pass over before all that I 
have said to you shall be accomplished.' 

" c Here are some astonishing miracles' (and this 
time it was I myself who spoke), ( but you have not 
included me in your list.' ' But you will be there, as 
an equally extraordinary miracle ; you will then be a 
Christian.' 

" Vehement exclamations on all sides. i Ah,' re- 
plied Chamfort, c I am comforted ; if we shall perish 
only when La Harpe shall be a Christian, we are im- 
mortal.' 

" * As for that,' then observed Madame la Duchesse 
de Grammont, ' we women, we are happy to be count- 
ed for nothing in these revolutions : when I say for 



232 APPENDIX. 

nothing, it is not that we do not always mix ourselves 
up with them a little, but it is a received maxim, that 
they take no notice of us, and of our sex.' ' Your 
sex, ladies, will not protect you this time ; and you 
had far better meddle with nothing, for you will be 
treated entirely as men, without any difference what- 
ever.' s Bat what, then, are you really telling us of. 
Monsieur Cazotte 1 You are preaching to us the end 
of the world.' ' I know nothing on this subject : but 
what I do know is, that you, Madame la Duchesse, will 
be conducted to the scaffold, you and many other ladies 
with you, in the cart of the executioner, and with your 
hands tied behind your backs.' 'Ah ! I hope that, in 
that case, I shall have a carriage hung in black.' 'No, 
madame ; higher ladies than yourself will go like you 
in the common car, with their hands tied behind them.' 
4 Higher ladies ! what ! the princesses of the blood V 
' Still more exalted personages.' Here a sensible emo- 
tion pervaded the whole company, and the countenance 
of the host was dark and lowering : they began to 
feel that the joke was become too serious. Madame 
de Grammont, in order to dissipate the cloud, took no 
notice of the reply, and contented herself with saying, 
in a careless tone : * You see that he will not 
leave me even a coNFEssoR.' ' No, madame, you 
will not have one, neither you, nor any one besides. 
The last victim to whom this favor will be afforded, 
will be ' He stopped for a moment. c Well ! 



APPENDIX, 233 

T7110 then will be the happy mortal to whom this pre- 
rogative will be given V ' 'Tis the only one which he 
will have then retained — and that will be the King of 
France !' 

" The master of the house rose hastily, and every 
one with him. He walked up to M. Cazotte, and ad- 
dressed him with a tone of deep emotion : ' My dear 
Monsieur Cazotte, this mournful joke has lasted long 
enough. You carry it too far — even so far as to der- 
ogate from the society in which you are, and from your 
own character.' Cazotte answered not a word, and 
was preparing to leave, when Madame de Grammont, 
who always sought to dissipate serious thought, and to 
restore the lost gayety of the part} r , approached him, 
saying, ' Monsieur the prophet, who has foretold us of 
our good fortune, you have told us nothing of your 
own.' He remained silent for some time, with down- 
cast eyes. ' Madame, have you ever read the siege of 
Jerusalem, in Josephus V ' Yes ! who has not read 
that ! But answer as if I had never read it.' ' Well 
then, madame, during the siege, a man for seven days 
in succession went round the ramparts of the city, in 
sight of the besiegers and besieged, crying unceasingly, 
with an ominous and thundering voice, Wo to Jeru- 
salem ! and the seventh time he cried, Wo to Je- 
rusalem, wo to myself ! — and at that moment an 
enormous stone, projected from one of the machines of 
the besieging army, struck him, and destroyed him.' 



234 APPENDIX. 

" And, after this reply, M. Cazotte made his bow 
and retired." 

That the above prediction was fulfilled to the letter, 
history fully corroborates. Perhaps the reader may 
wish to know the fate of this excellent man, as he pre- 
dicted that he should perish with those whose fate he 
pronounced. His end is thus stated : 

" 'I have also seen the son of M. Cazotte, who as- 
sured me that his father was gifted, in a most remark- 
able manner, with a faculty of pre-vision, of which he 
had numberless proofs ; one of the most remarkable 
of which was, that on returning home on the day on 
which his daughter had succeeded in delivering him 
from the hands of the wretches who were conducting 
him to the scaffold, instead of partaking the joy of his 
surrounding family, he declared that in three days he 
should be again arrested, and that he should then un- 
dergo his fate ; and in truth he perished on the 25th 
of September. 1792, at the age of 72.' " 

A few Passages from the Life of Joan of Arc. 

" On the 12th of February, 1428, on which the dis- 
astrous battle of Rouvray-Saint-Denis was fought, Joan 
said to M. Robert de Baudricourt, Governor of Vau- 
couleurs, that the king had suffered great losses before 
Orleans, and would experience further losses unless 
she were sent to him. The exactitude of this an- 
nouncement determined Baudricourt to send her. 



APPENDIX. 235 

" The next day, on her departure, many persons 
asked Joan how she could possibly undertake this jour- 
ney, since the whole country was overrun with soldiers : 
she answered, that she should find the way clear. No 
accident happened to her, nor to those who accompa- 
nied her, and even very few difficulties during the 
whole journey, which lasted eleven days, through an 
enemy's country, at the close of winter, over a distance 
of one hundred and fifty leagues, and intersected by 
several deep rivers. 

" On the 27th of February, when she was about to 
be presented to the king, a man on horseback who saw 
her passing, employed some blasphemous expressions. 
Joan heard him, and, turning her head, said, ' Ha ! dost 
thou blaspheme the name of God, and yet so near to 
death.'?' In about an hour afterward this man fell 
into the water and was drowned. 

M The following month, Joan informed the doctors 
who were commissioned to examine her at Poictiers : 

" 1. That the English would be beaten ; that they 
would raise the siege of Orleans ; and that this city 
would be delivered from the said English. 

" 2. That the king would be consecrated at Rheims. 

" 3. That the city of Paris would be restored to its 
loyalty. 

" 4. That the Duke of Orleans would return from 
England. 

" The king, in council, having determined to send 



236 APPENDIX. 

Joan to Orleans, they commissioned her to conduct a 
convoy of provisions, of which the place stood in the 
greatest need. It was observed to her that it would 
be a difficult enterprise, considering its fortifications 
and the English besiegers, who were strong and pow- 
erful. ' By the help of my God,' answered she, ' we 
will put them into Orleans easily, and without any at- 
tempt to prevent us on the part of the English.' 

" The generals of Charles VII. not daring to take 
the route which Joan had pointed out to them, the 
convoy was obliged to halt at some leagues from Or- 
leans, from the want of water and from adverse winds. 
Every body was confounded and in grief, but Joan an- 
nounced that the wind would soon change, and that the 
provisions would be easily thrown into the town in spite 
of the English, all of which was completely verified. 

" The English retained one of the heralds whom 
Joan had sent to summon them to surrender — they 
even wished to burn him alive, and they wrote to the 
University of Paris to consult upon the subject. Joan 
assured them that they would do him no harm. 

" When Joan appeared on the redoubt, called the 
Boulevard de la Belle-Croix, to summon them to raise 
the siege, these loaded her with abuse, especially one 
of the officers, to whom Joan replied, ' that he spoke 
falsely, and in spite of them all, they would soon de- 
part, but that he would never see it, and that many of 
his people would be killed.' In fact, when the fort of 



APPENDIX. 237 

Tournelles was taken, this officer wished to make his 
escape by the bridge which separated the fort from the 
suburbs ; but an arch gave way beneath his feet, and 
he with all his men were drowned. 

u Having introduced the convoy of provisions and 
ammunition into Orleans, Joan foretold to the inhab- 
itants that in five days not an Englishman would re- 
main before their walls. 

" On the 6th of May, Joan informed her confessor 
that on the next day she should be wounded above the 
bosom, while before the fort at the end of the bridge. 
And in fact she received a lance between the neck and 
the shoulder, which passed out nearly half a foot be- 
hind the neck. 

" On the morning of the 7th, her host having invited 
her to partake of some fish which had been brought him, 
she desired him to keep it till night, because she would 
then bring him a stranger who would do his part in 
eating it. She added that after having taken the 
Tournelles, she would re-pass the bridge — a promise 
which seemed impossible to any body, but which, nev- 
ertheless, was fulfilled, like all the other impossibilities. 

" The irresolution of the king was the greatest pun- 
ishment to Joan. ' I shall only continue for a year 
and a very little more,' said she. c I must try to em- 
ploy that year well.' 

" The Duchesse d'Alencon was greatly alarmed on 
seeing her husband at the head of the army, which was 



238 APPENDIX. 

about to enforce the coronation of the king at Rheims. 
Joan told her to fear nothing — that she would bring 
him back safe and sound, and in a better condition 
than he was at that moment. 

" At the attack of Jargean, the Due d'Alencon was 
attentively reconnoitring the outworks of the town, 
when Joan told him to remove from the spot on which 
he was standing, or that he would be killed by some 
warlike missile. The duke removed, and almost imme- 
diately afterward a gentleman of Anjou, by the name 
of M. de Lade, was struck in the very place which the 
duke had just left. 

" The English generals, Talbot, Searles, and Fal- 
staff, having arrived with four thousand men to the 
relief of the castle of Beaugenie, in order to raise the 
siege of that place, Joan predicted that the English 
would not defend themselves — would be conquered, and 
that this triumph would be almost bloodless on the part 
of the royal army, and that there would be very few — 
not quite to say no one — killed of the French combat- 
ants. In truth, they lost but one man, and almost all 
the English were killed or taken. 

" Joan had told the king not to fear any want of 
troops for the expedition to Rheims, for that there 
would be plenty of persons, and many would follow 
him. In, truth, the army increased visibly from day 
to day, and numbered twelve thousand men by the end 
of June, 1429. 



APPENDIX. 239 

u When the army had arrived before Troyes, that 
city shut its gates, and refused to yield. After five 
days' waiting, and useless efforts of capitulation, the 
majority of the council advised to retire to Gien ; but 
Joan declared that in less than three days she would 
introduce the king into the city by favor or by force. 
The chancellor said that they would even wait six days 
if they could be sure of the truth of her promises. 
4 Doubt nothing,* said. she. ' You will be master of the 
city to-morrow. 9 Immediately preparations were made 
for the projected assault, which so alarmed the inhab- 
itants and their garrison that they capitulated next day. 

M Charles feared that the city of Rheims would op- 
pose a long resistance to his arms, and that it would 
be difficult to make himself master of it, because he 
was deficient in artillery. 6 Have no doubt,' said Joan, 
' for the citizens of the town of Rheims will anticipate 
you. Before you are close to the city, the inhabitants 
will surrender.' On the 16th of July the principal 
inhabitants of the city laid its keys at the feet of the 
king. 

" During her captivity, Joan made the following 
predictions on the 1st of March, 1430, in the presence 
of nfty-nine witnesses, whose names are given faith- 
fully by M. le Brim de Charmettes : ' Before seven 
years are past, the English will abandon a larger prize 
than they have done before Orleans, and will lose every 
thing in France. 



240 APPENDIX. 

" c They will experience the severest loss they have 
ever felt in France, and this will be by a great victory 
which God will bestow upon the French.' 

" Paris was actually re-taken by the French under 
the command of the Marshal de Richemont and the 
Count de Dunois, on the 14th of April, 1436." 

La Physique Occulte, ou Traite de la Baguette Divi- 
natoire^ par M. L. L. de Vallemont, M. D., etc. 

" On the 5th of July, 1692, a dealer in wine, and 
his wife, residing in Lyons, were murdered in a cellar, 
for the sake of robbing them of a sum of money kept 
in a shop hard by, which was at the same time their 
chamber. All this was executed with such prompti- 
tude and secrecy that no one had witnessed the crime, 
and the assassins escaped. 

u A neighbor, struck with horror at the enormity of 
the crime, having remembered that he knew a man 
named Jacques Aymar, a wealthy peasant, who could 
follow the track of thieves and murderers, induced him 
to come to L^ons^ and introduced him to the king's at- 
torney-general. This peasant assured the functionary 
that if they would lead him to the place where the mur- 
der was committed, in order that he might receive from 
it a certain influence, he would assuredly trace the 
steps of the guilty parties, and would point them out, 
wherever they were. He added, that for his purpose 
he should make use of a rod of wood, such as he was 



APPENDIX. 241 

in the habit of using to find springs of water, metals, 
and hidden treasure. The man was conducted to the 
cellar where the murders were committed. There he 
was seized with emotion ; his pulse rose as if he were 
suffering from a violent fever, and the forked rod which 
he held in his hands turned rapidly over the two places 
where the murdered bodies had lain. 

" Having received the impression, Aymar, guided by 
his rod, passed through the streets through which the 
assassins had fled. He entered the courtyard of the 
archbishop's palace. Arriving at the gate of the 
Rhone, which was shut, it being night, he could then 
proceed no farther. The next day he went out of the 
town by the bridge of the Rhone, and, always guided 
by the rod, he went to the right along the bank of the 
river. Three persons, who accompanied him, were 
witnessess that sometimes he recognized the tracks of 
three accomplices, and that sometimes he found only 
two. In this uncertainty he was led by the rod to the 
house of a gardener, where he was enlightened as to 
the number of the criminals. For, on his arrival, he 
maintained that they had touched a table, and that of 
three bottles which were in the room, they had touched 
one, over which the rod visibly rotated. In short, two 
boys of nine and ten years of age, who, fearing their 
lather's anger, had at first denied the fact, at last ac- 
knowledged that three men, whom they described, had 
entered the house, and had drunk the wine which was 
11 



242 APPENDIX. 

contained in the bottle indicated by the peasant. As 
they were assured by the declaration of the children, 
they did not hesitate to go forward with Aymar half a 
league lower than the bridge on the bank of the Rhone. 
All along the bank for this distance the footsteps of 
the criminals were traced. Then they must have en- 
tered a boat. Aymar followed in another on their 
track as clearly by water as by land ; and his boat was 
made to go through an arch of the bridge of Vienne, 
which is never used, upon which it was concluded that 
these wretches had no boatman, since they wandered 
out of their way. 

u On the voyage, Aymar went ashore at all the 
places where the fugitives had landed, went straight to 
their coverts, and recognized, to the great surprise of 
the hosts and spectators, the beds on which they had 
slept, the tables on which they had eaten, and the pots 
and glasses they had touched. 

" He arrived at the camp of Sablon, where he was 
considerably agitated. He believed that in the crowd 
of soldiers he should find the murderers. Lest the 
soldiers should ill-treat him, he feared to operate with 
his rod. He returned to Lyons, whence they made 
hira go back to the camp of Sablon by water, having 
him furnished with letters of recommendation. The 
criminals were no longer to be found there. He followed 
them to the fair of Beaucaire, in Languedoc, and al- 



APPENDIX. 243 

ways remarked, in his course, the beds, the tables, the 
seats where they had been. 

" At Beaucaire the rod conducted him to the gate 
of a prison, where he was positive one of the wretches 
would be found. Fourteen of the prisoners were pa- 
raded before him, and the rod turned on a man with a 
humped back, who had been sent to prison about one 
hour before for a petty larceny. The peasant did not 
hesitate to declare his conviction that the hump-backed 
man was one of the assassins ; but he continued to 
search for the others, and found that they had gone 
toward Nismes. No more was done at that time. 
They transferred the hump-backed man to Lyons. 
On the journey he asseverated his innocence ; but find- 
ing that all the hosts, at whose inns he had lodged, 
recognized him, he avowed that he had been the ser- 
vant of two men of Provence, who had engaged him to 
join them in this foul deed : that these men had com- 
mitted the murder, and had taken the money, giving 
him but six crowns and a half from their booty of one 
hundred and thirty crowns. He corroborated the ac- 
curacy of the indications of the peasant as to the gar- 
dener's house, the camp of the Sablon, the fair at 
Beaucaire, and the other places through which the 
three had passed, extending over forty-five French 
leagues. All these things, of course, excited immense 
interest. At Lyons, many repetitions of the observa- 
tions respecting the turning of the rod in the cellar 



244 APPENDIX. 

were made in presence of many persons. Monsieur 
PAbbe Bignon gives his testimony to the truth of the 
statement of facts, in a letter inserted by Vallemont in 
his work. There can be no doubt that such statements 
require very strong corroboration, and here they appa- 
rently obtain it. Vallemont, quoting the authority of 
the Royal Society of London, in the second part of the 
history, seventeenth section, one hundred and twenty- 
fifth page, says, that in all countries where men are 
governed by laws, the testimony in a matter of life and 
death, of only two or three witnesses is required : but 
is it, then, treating an affair of physics equitably, when 
the concurrence of sixty or a hundred persons is insuf- 
ficient 1 It is difficult to define the just boundaries of 
credulity; but in all these recitals of histories of events 
there is this general consent, that in those who can 
make use of the rod, there is always an agitation, a fe- 
ver, or some sensation which indicates a nervous com- 
motion ; and the best evidence of the closest investiga- 
tion goes to the point, that most frequently the rod is 
of hazel wood. How far these stories tend to the con- 
clusion that organic tests appear to require the re-agen- 
cies of organic force is, at present, a matter of specu- 
lation ; but it is to be hoped that the effort to attract 
serious attention to this class of facts is not uninterest- 
ing or unimportant." 

It is a duty I owe to myself and readers, to state 



APPENDIX. 245 

that the views I have advanced in the first Seven Lec- 
tures of this book, on the involuntary 'powers and 
instincts of the hitman mind* are entirely original with 
me, and have been entertained for several years previous 
to the appearance of my " Twelve Lectures on the Phi- 
losophy of Electrical Psychology," published in 1850, 
in which I first advanced them openly. In proof of this, 
I publish the following letter, which is the original, draft 
of one I addressed in 1846 to Professor Bush of this city, 
whom I regard as one of the first linguists and scholars 
of the age. I unfortunately permitted an individual to 
take a copy of this letter in 1848, and hence some of 
the ideas contained in it appear in a work of which said 
individual claims to be the author. In self-defense I 
therefore append the letter as proof that my views of 
the involuntary powers and instincts of the human 
mind contained in this work date back to 1846, which 
was two years before I ever saw said individual. 

TO GEORGE BUSH, 

PROFESSOR OF HEBREW IN" NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. 

" Boston, June 1, 1846. 

u My dear Sir — At our last interview I promised 
to let you occasionally hear from me. As a convenient 
opportunity now offers, I hasten to improve it. Since 
conversing with you in New York city, and hearing 
you lecture there, I have had many pleasing as well as 
serious contemplations on human life, human nature, 
the mental capacity of man, and his susceptibility of a 



246 APPENDIX. 

ceaseless development in intellectual and moral gran- 
deur. I am well aware that a finite mind, how high 
soever it may soar, can, after all, know but little com- 
pared with the Infinite Mind. You will pardon my 
making a comparison where, strictly speaking, no com- 
parison can exist. I merely use the word to express 
my idea of the greatness and yet the littleness of man. 

" It is evident, however, that, from the faint glim- 
merings of infantile reason, man passes on to that in- 
tellectual strength and greatness when he can take a 
survey of the planets, the dimensions of the sun, trace 
the comet in its erratic course, analyze the works of 
God, and comprehend the vast and complicated opera- 
tions of the human mind. Delivered from the bondage 
of corruption, he can approximate to more than angelic 
purity, and in this moral career of rapture and delight 
he can soar and soar forever ! Thus his faculties are 
destined to expand and assume a more holy and glori- 
ous type without end ! 

" Such being the wonderful impression of man's na- 
ture, it is evident that that measure of scientific infor- 
mation which is now exactly adapted to his mental 
capacity and condition in this mortal life, could not be 
suited to his capacity and condition a thousand years 
to come (were he to live so long on earth), any more 
than the alphabet, which was once adapted to the infant 
mind of Newton, could have been suited to his mental 
capacity and condition as a sage philosopher. As the 
mind expands in intellectual grandeur, ideas equally 
expansive and grand must be presented to it, as its 
natural food, to sustain its mental vigor and accelerate 
its intellectual growth. True, man's existence here ig 



APPENDIX. 247 

momentary, yet the above argument retains its force, 
for it is just as applicable to future successive genera- 
tions, to whom be leaves bis improvements, as it would 
be to himself, even were he to live a thousand years 
twice told on earth. 

" This being the case in relation to his mental con- 
stitution and nature, is it not, my dear sir, safe as well 
as natural to adopt the same mode of reasoning in rela- 
tion to his moral and religious nature ? Has not this, 
too, received from the hand of God the stamp of that 
original greatness which is destined to manifest itself 
by a ceaseless development of moral attainments and 
powers 1 If so, will not new and successive revelations 
in relation to the doctrines and teachings of Jesus be 
necessary, as the moral food of the soul, adapted to its 
religious and ever-increasing growth and vigor 1 There 
was unquestionably a revelation made to our first pa- 
rents adapted to the infancy of our race. There was 
another made to Noah, and still another to Moses, 
adapted to the moral science (if I may so speak) of 
that age. Still greater and ever-increasing light was 
successively vouchsafed to prophets, adapted to the 
moral capacity of the world, till the coming of the 
Just One. Till then, every revelation made religion 
consist in externals. The internal and spiritual was 
begun by our Savior, who laid the foundation 

OF TRUTH SO BROAD AND DEEP, THAT ALL FUTURE 
GENERATIONS, HOWEVER MUCH INSPIRED, MIGHT BUILD 

upon it, and he let in upon our world just as much 
light as it was able to bear. The Apostles enforced 
his doctrine, built upon the foundation, and advanced 
the work. Emanuel Swedenhorg pLid his duty, for- 



248 APPENDIX. 

warded the superstructure, threw an increasing degree 
of spiritual light and truth on the world, made many 
dark places plain, and advanced and ennobled spiritual 
worship in the soul. 

" But after all, is this the greatest height of moral 
instruction to which the human mind can soar? Has 
he plucked the immortal laurel from the loftiest cliff? 
Has he finished the building of God, and laid the top- 
stone of its glory, so that there is nothing for God's 
chosen servants of future generations to do ? I think 
not, and human magnetism warrants the conclusion 
that Swedenborg is but one link in the bright and end- 
less chain of divine, revelations. By long experience 
in this divine magnetic science, I am entirely satisfied 
that new revelations are to be opened on the world. 
No two in the magnetic state are alike, and in propor- 
tion to their moral and religious greatness and grandeur 
is their power to see and reveal what is merciful, great, 
and sublime in both physical and moral diseases, and 
their treatment, and also in what appertains to the fu- 
ture and immortal condition of man in eternity, as well 
as his duty and interest in time. 

66 Man is certainly a mysterious and wonderful be- 
ing, and his powers and capabilities are as yet but 
partially understood. That my meaning may not be 
misapprehended, permit me, dear sir, to remark that 
we are well aware that those creatures that are most 
devoid of reason, have been blessed by their Creator 
with the greatest share of instinct, to supply their 
wants and answer the end of their existence. The in- 
stinctive powers of the bee are wonderful and various, 
but no more incomprehensible than the propensity of 



APPENDIX. 249 

the duck, when hatched into being, to go to the water. 
But as sagacity increases, the instinctive powers appear 
weakened, or in slumber, till we rise in regular grada- 
tion up to man, the highest link of the living chain, 
who being blessed with reason, seems devoid of instinct. 
Still the instinctive powers do exist in man, and un- 
questionably in a much higher and more perfect degree 
than in any other creature in being. By instinct, we 
of course understand an internal propensity which sug- 
gests the existence of some external object as its grat- 
ification, and between that propensity and the object 
there must be an exact aptitude and correspondence. 
Hence the instinctive propensities must be numerous, 
in exact ratio to the number of external objects sug- 
gested by them. Man has, therefore, on this principle, 
instinctive powers as much more superior, both in num- 
ber and degree, to any other creatures in existence, as 
his rank and destiny in the scale of intellectual be- 
ing are higher than theirs. Fie possesses, therefore, 
instinctive powers to discover his relation to things 
earthly and heavenly — to things pertaining to his entire 
destiny both in time and in eternity. 

" But in his present existence he is so constituted, 
that while he is in his natural state of wakefulness he 
can not exercise these instinctive powers. If he could, 
then all diseases, accidents, and dangers would not 
only be foreseen, but avoided by him, and hence the 
present state, where he is disciplined by sufferings and 
self-denials for a nobler and more elevated state of be- 
ing, would be entirely lost ; and hence this disciplinary 
school, founded by the Creator when he founded the 
pillars of the universe, and where have been taught 
11* 



250 APPENDIX. 

the most sublime, grand, and useful lessons of earth, 
would be struck out of existence ! But when he is 
thrown into the spiritual state, then the doors are burst 
open, the chains are broken asunder, and the impris- 
oned faculties of his instinctive nature are in a meas- 
ure set free, and allowed to range both earth and 
heaven, and manifest their mysterious powers to men 
in the full exhibition of the most brilliant phenomena 
that seem to overwhelm the mind with amazement 
and awe. 

" This being, in my apprehension, the true position 
of the case, you will perceive I hold that the magnetic 
state is nothing more than arousing the instinctive 
powers of man from their natural slumberings, in the 
secret chambers of the soul, into wakefulness and 
sensibility, so as to act in concert with the intellectual 
powers of the mind. The brain is a congeries of or- 
gans through which the mind acts, and manifests all 
its wonderful attributes, and holds communion with 
external nature. If a certain number of distinct or- 
gans of the brain are paralyzed and others excited, the 
result is a view of the immortal world. If, now, some 
of the excited ones are paralyzed, and some of the par- 
alyzed ones are excited, the result is a power of fore- 
seeing future events. And so on through all the vari- 
ety of powers and phenomena which the human mind 
is capable of manifesting by an indefinite number of 
permutations of its organs and attributes. Hence in- 
spiration is in perfect accordance with the philosophy 
of mind ; and one may be inspired ' to work miracles, 
another to prophesy, another to discern spirits, and 
another to speak with different tongues.' 



APPENDIX. 251 

" It is unquestionably true, that the inspired men of 
both the Old and New Testaments, embracing prophets 
and apostles, were not continually inspired. When in- 
formation was asked of them in relation to any matter, 
they required time to give the answer. But if they 
had been continually in the inspired state, this would 
have been unnecessary, as they could have given the 
desired information at any instant. When Nebuchad- 
nezzar commanded all the wise men of Babylon to be 
slain, because they could not relate to him what he had 
dreamed, then Daniel went in and desired of the king 
that he would give him time, and that he would show 
him the dream, and also its interpretation. Here time 
was desired, which proves that Daniel was not then 
inspired to tell him the dream. By prayer and supplica- 
tion he is brought to a state where the whole is revealed 
to him in a night vision. Hence all the powers of in- 
spiration and prophecy exist in the human mind ; and 
by communing with God, by fasting, supplication, and 
prayer, the mind is brought into a condition to arouse 
the instinctive principles of our nature into action, and 
from these all the wonders which have been vouchsafed 
to inspired men, and that the world has ever beheld, 
have emanated. 

" Sensible that you are a gentleman of profound and 
original thought, and whose mind has been disciplined 
and enriched by education, I have ventured to throw 
out to you the above ideas, which I have never before 
expressed in any manner whatever, either in public or 
private. We live in an age of wonders, and as human 
magnetism is being reduced to a science, I feel a hes- 
itancy in expressing my ideas upon this subject till I 



252 APPENDIX. 

shall at least see what Andrew Jackson Davis, the 
New York clairvoyant, who is -now considered the best 
in the world, has to say. As he is a young man of 
high moral and religious attainments, and is at the 
same time unlettered, we shall certainly have a fair 
opportunity to ascertain whether he is, or is not, while 
in the magnetic state, inspired, in the scriptural sense 
of the word. 

" In the mean time, may I hope for the pleasure of 
hearing from you soon, and also of learning how far you 
differ from my views of the Magnetic State. 

" I am, with due deference and respect, most sin- 
cerely, " Yours, 

" J. B. Dods." 



I would say to my readers, that there are sev- 
eral words and sentences in the above letter that I 
would like to correct, but I give the letter as it stands 
in the original draft. My views at that time, now 
about eight years ago, are clearly seen. 



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